Islam Makhachev just put a countdown clock on his career. The UFC champion wrote on X Friday that his next fight, a title unifier against whoever wins at UFC 336, will be one of the final bouts he ever takes.
“My next fight is one of the last in my career. They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me,” Makhachev wrote. “So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in world.”
MMA Junkie confirmed the framing, describing the fight as a unifier with the UFC 336 winner. Makhachev didn’t give a number. “One of the last” could mean two fights or four. He’s been around long enough to know that phrasing buys him room.
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The timing makes sense, because the last week has been rough on him in public. Michael Bisping, praising Alexander Volkanovski after Volk stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333, took a swipe at Makhachev along the way. Bisping said Volkanovski is “not one of these guys doing an Islam, fighting once a year and then picking and choosing who he fights and letting contenders face one another.” That one stings a little extra, since Makhachev is the man who beat Volkanovski twice when Volk went up chasing a second belt.
Brendan Schaub went further, ranting that Makhachev should have been stripped for sitting out during Ramadan and tying fighter inactivity to religion. He walked it back on X Thursday, saying his point was “you can’t build stars if they’re not active” and conceding the whole rant was dumb because Makhachev is already a superstar.
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Then there’s Prates, who answered Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz this week by saying a champion who fights for passion would face the No. 1 contender in January. “I will not add anything on his legacy, I will finish his legacy brother, and also, he will make me look great,” Prates said. Makhachev’s Friday post reads a lot like a reply to that.
He has some backup. Joshua Van defended him, pointing out that people were calling Makhachev the GOAT after he beat Ian Garry and turned on him fast. Matt Brown also came to Makhachev’s defense and ripped the UFC for creating another interim title, per MMA Fighting.
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My take: Brown is right, and the interim belt is the whole reason this fight is called a unifier at all. The UFC manufactured a second champion so it could sell the same fight twice. Still, I’ll give Makhachev this much. He answered the crowd accusing him of cherry-picking opponents by naming the two guys everyone says he should be scared of and asking for the winner. That’s about as straight as a fighter gets, and if UFC 336 delivers a real finish, his farewell tour opens against someone who already told him, in public, that he plans to end it for him.
