Islam Makhachev is done arguing about January and is now arguing about who deserves him. After pulling out of a planned UFC 336 headliner against Carlos Prates, Makhachev questioned whether Prates or Michael Morales has built a strong enough resume for a title shot, Sherdog reported. He also said he’ll fight the winner when the two meet in Toronto. Last Word On Sports carried his line on the matchup, “We Will Figure Out Who’s the Real Challenger,” and NDTV Sports led with the simpler version: “I’ll Fight The Winner.”
The sequence took about 36 hours. On October 23, Championship Rounds, citing AgFight, reported that Makhachev vs. Prates was off the January card it was originally set to headline. By the next afternoon the UFC had a replacement. Prates will fight Morales for the interim welterweight title at UFC 336 on January 30 in Toronto. Joshua Van vs. Manel Kape is also on the card.
Dana White did not sound thrilled with how it went down. Per Championship Rounds, White said Makhachev gave the promotion no real reason for skipping January beyond the calendar. “Islam fights like once a year. He was slated for January, and then said ‘I don’t want to fight until after Ramadan,’” White said. “You can’t hold up divisions like this. You gotta keep moving.”
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Prates took it more personally. In a callout that Dovy Simu flagged from Instagram, the Brazilian said Makhachev told the UFC he wouldn’t be ready to fight three months out, and he mocked the idea that a fighter who doesn’t drink, smoke or party needs longer than that. “Let me show you how it’s done,” Prates said. “On January 30, I’m going to knock Michael Morales out, and then I’ll come back to retire you, coward!”
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So the champ is questioning the contenders’ credentials, and the contenders are questioning the champ’s schedule. Nobody looks fully clean here. Makhachev turned down a fight with one of these guys and then said neither has done enough, which is a strange position to hold about a man you were booked to face a week ago. If Prates wasn’t a worthy challenger, that was a conversation for before the poster got printed.
I’ll give Makhachev this much. Making two contenders fight each other is the oldest trick in the book, and it works. Whoever leaves Toronto with interim gold has a cleaner claim than either one had on October 22. But I’ve been burned enough times by champions who sit out long stretches and then show up as heavy favorites against a guy who’s been active. White’s own “once a year” line is the stat I’d circle. When the Makhachev fight finally gets booked, I’ll be looking hard at the underdog side, whoever it is. Before any of that, Prates and Morales have to settle it on January 30.
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