Islam Makhachev is talking like a man who can see the end from where he’s standing. On October 30, the reigning UFC welterweight champion wrote on X that his next fight “is one of the last in my career,” then turned the post into a reply to everyone who had spent the week questioning him.
“They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me. So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in world,” he wrote.
The post followed a week that went badly for him in public. Makhachev had been expected to defend his belt against Carlos Prates on the January 30 UFC 336 card, but he pulled out of negotiations. His explanation was that welterweight had too many deserving contenders, and that Prates and Michael Morales should settle the No. 1 contender question between themselves. That didn’t land well with either fighter, and it didn’t land well with Dana White either, according to Last Word on Sports, via Yahoo Sports. The UFC has since booked Prates and Morales for the interim welterweight title in Toronto.
The X post reads differently against that backdrop. He’s no longer framing the wait as a matter of fairness. He’s saying the next one counts, because there aren’t many left.
The record he’d be walking away from
Makhachev turned 35 recently and hasn’t lost since 2015. He’s No. 1 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings, and his UFC win streak stands at 17, a promotional record. The most recent of those wins was his first welterweight defense, a unanimous decision over Ian Garry at UFC 330 in August.
He got to 170 pounds the long way. At lightweight he set the divisional record with four title defenses, beating Alexander Volkanovski, Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano along the way. Then he vacated that belt and took Jack Della Maddalena apart over five rounds at UFC 322 in November 2025 to become welterweight champion. That made him one of 11 UFC double champions, and he’s one of the few to defend titles in two divisions.
This also isn’t what he was saying before. Makhachev had talked about wanting to reach a 20-fight win streak and had made clear that retirement wasn’t on his near-term plans. Seventeen to 20 is three more fights. “One of the last” sounds like fewer.
Anyone who has followed that Dagestani camp has heard this kind of thing before. Khabib Nurmagomedov has said before that his teammate might have only a couple of good years left. Khabib walked away at 32, after he beat Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October 2020. Makhachev has already fought three years past that.
Quick take
I don’t read the post as a retirement announcement. I read it as a proud man who heard the word “ducking” whispered all week and decided to answer it. The sharpest line is the one aimed at the people saying Prates is too dangerous and Morales is too good, because he knows exactly how that sounds coming at a guy riding 17 straight. The clean version of his ending is right there for him. Prates and Morales fight for the interim belt in Toronto, and if Makhachev means what he wrote, he takes the winner and stops arguing about who deserves it. If his next fight really is one of his last, the man standing across from him should be whoever leaves Toronto with that interim belt.
