Prates' manager says the UFC is a little upset with Makhachev

Prates’ manager says the UFC is a little upset with Islam Makhachev. Lucas Lutkus told MMA Fighting on November 5.

Carlos Prates meets Michael Morales for the interim welterweight title in the co-main of UFC 336 on January 30 in Toronto, after Makhachev left the undisputed title fight, and welterweight is 170 pounds (77 kg). The booking covers that interim bout. Lutkus said the UFC promised Prates the title minutes after he knocked Jack Della Maddalena out at 3:17 of the third round on May 2 in the main event of UFC Perth, three months before Makhachev’s defense against Ian Machado Garry, and the UFC offered the January date after UFC 330. Prates agreed at once, Dana White confirmed the agreement, and the UFC had told the camp to get ready for the first numbered event in January.

Makhachev is 34 and 29-1, with a 17-fight win streak, and he is 70 inches (178 cm) with a 70.5-inch (179 cm) reach. He beat Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at 5:00 of the fifth round on August 15 at UFC 330 in Philadelphia, and on August 16 he said he had to fight before Ramadan, in January or at the end of the year, because he is not in his twenties, he is not cutting much weight, and he has no big injuries beyond a nose he might double-check. Ramadan begins on February 7. On October 20 the UFC called Lutkus. Lutkus asked if it was an injury, and the UFC said Makhachev had given no reason and had only said he would not be ready for January, so the promotion would not break the promise that Prates’ next fight would be for a title.

Lutkus said he does not think the UFC knows what changed. Makhachev’s coaches called Prates the most deserving contender, and the camps had a quick encounter backstage in Philadelphia. Makhachev said this past weekend that Prates and Morales should fight to settle a true worthy contender. Lutkus said that does not hold up, because right after Philadelphia Makhachev said Carlos deserved the fight and that Morales was not fighting. Lutkus said he is not naive enough to think Makhachev is afraid of Prates, that something changed his mind, that Makhachev has not explained it, and that the January date had been the plan for three months.

Morales stepping in for Makhachev does not change the purse. Lutkus would not give the figure, and he said it is the highest purse he has negotiated for a UFC fighter. He said it is entirely possible Prates is the second-highest-paid Brazilian in the UFC, behind only Poatan, and he does not know what Charles Oliveira makes and imagines it is similar, so if Prates is not second he is third. Lutkus said Prates is making substantially more than Diego Lopes and Jean Silva, and that even a fight that is not for the title carries a guaranteed seven-figure purse.

Prates is 33 and 24-7, he is 73 inches (185 cm) with a 78-inch (198 cm) reach, and he has had more than 100 muay thai bouts. He used to talk about stopping at 35 or 36. In his first stretch in the UFC he fought five times in 14 months and told Lutkus he wanted to stop. After Perth he had time off, with only Makhachev planned for the next year, and he told Lutkus he cannot take partying anymore, he is spending more time at home, he is slowing down, and he wants to fight. Lutkus said the body cannot handle five fights a year, and that once Prates sees he can fight once a year the way Makhachev does, he will not need to retire.

That first UFC year won him MMA Fighting’s Rookie of the Year, four straight knockouts of Neil Magny, Li Jingliang, Charles Radtke, and Trevin Giles, and a bonus for every finish. He nearly took a fifth fight in 2024, on short notice and with a broken foot, against Shavkat Rakhmonov. Two weeks remained, the boot was due off on Thursday of fight week, and the team was willing. The UFC doctor refused to clear a fighter still in a boot. Lutkus sent the X-ray to Hunter Campbell, and Campbell told them the UFC does everything it can to get a fighter in when it wants the fight, and that fighting on that foot was absurd.

Morales is 27 and 19-0, he is 72 inches (183 cm) with a 79-inch (201 cm) reach, and he is 7-0 in the UFC, with five knockouts since he joined. He knocked Sean Brady out at 3:27 of the first round on November 15, 2025. Jack Della Maddalena, who never wrestled, took Prates down twice, including a trip with 30 seconds left in a first round Prates had already won comfortably, and Prates did not spend himself defending it, so Lutkus said that trip is not a guide to what Makhachev would have done, and Leon Edwards, a striker, took him down twice as well. Lutkus set Morales next to Justin Gaethje, an All-American wrestler who does not use the wrestling: Morales has landed one takedown in the UFC, and Lutkus still expects him to wrestle once Prates starts landing, without anything like Makhachev’s pressure. Lutkus does not want Prates on the bottom against Morales. Morales is big and strong, and he is not Makhachev, where the bottom ends the round. From the bottom Prates can stand, sweep, which he has already done in the UFC, or look for a submission. Lutkus expects Morales to trade and to show knockout power, and that is where Prates shows there are levels.