{"id":434307,"date":"2026-01-24T11:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434307\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T11:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:14:12","slug":"carlos-prates-predicts-islam-makhachevs-next-welterweight-title-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434307\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Prates predicts Islam Makhachev’s next welterweight title opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Prates has given his thoughts on who could be next for UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n

As we know, Islam Makhachev is the number one pound for pound fighter in mixed martial arts today. He is the current UFC welterweight champion, and he is ready to take on any challengers that come his way. While we don\u2019t know exactly how much longer he\u2019s got left as an active competitor in the sport, his immediate future<\/a> looks pretty bright.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Ilia Topuria responds to Islam Makhachev\u2019s recent ultimatum by dismissing his grappling prowess<\/a><\/p>\n

In terms of who comes next, it\u2019s not quite clear. Makhachev has made it clear that he wants to go up against Kamaru Usman, but there\u2019s also the possibility of Ilia Topuria moving up from 155 pounds. Then, you have an outside contender like Michael Morales, who is on fire right now at 170.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Carlos Prates weighed in on who he believes could be next up for Makhachev.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Prates\u2019 view on Makhachev\u2019s future<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to happen because if Kamaru is not fighting against Islam, probably they\u2019re going to put Morales because they started to trash talk and things like that,\u201d Prates said in an interview with MMA Today. I\u2019m really down to fight Jack Della Maddalena or Morales, but I think Morales is going to fight for the belt. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening with Kamaru. I don\u2019t know if he got an injury or something like that. I want to fight JDM.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quotes via MMA Junkie<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you believe should be next for Islam Makhachev? How many more fights will he have in the welterweight division before hanging up his gloves once and for all? Let us know your thoughts on this and his career as a whole in the comments, BJPENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Prates has given his thoughts on who could be next for UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-434307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}