The UFC confirmed during Saturday’s UFC 333 broadcast that Prates and Morales will meet for the interim welterweight title in the co-main event of UFC 336 on January 30 in Toronto, beneath Joshua Van’s flyweight title defence against Manel Kape. Prates had been in talks to challenge Makhachev for the undisputed title on that card, but the champion informed the promotion he would not be ready to fight on that date, and the bout was never officially booked.
Prates responded on Instagram, writing in Portuguese, as translated by MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. “Islam Makhachev, I’ve been working toward my dream of becoming a champion for 17 years, and now you’ve postponed that,” he wrote. “I’m the No. 1. I knocked out two former champions, while Morales has only beaten Sean Brady. On January 30, I’m going to knock out Michael Morales, and then I’ll be back to retire you, you coward.”
Makhachev’s reply was one sentence on X, and it went straight at the one blemish on Prates’s UFC record. “I just beat the guy who chased you around the Octagon for five rounds,” he wrote, a reference to Ian Machado Garry, who beat Prates by decision in 2025 and remains the only fighter to defeat him in the UFC. Makhachev beat Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 in August in his first welterweight title defence, which is part of why the decision to create an interim title has puzzled some observers: the champion fought barely two months ago. Dana White has framed the move around keeping the division moving, saying that divisions cannot be held up, while Makhachev’s longtime coach Javier Mendez has pushed back against criticism of his fighter.
The fight Prates is getting is no consolation prize. Prates, 24-7, has won three straight by knockout and finished all seven of his UFC victories, which is the résumé behind his claim to be No. 1. Morales, 19-0, has never lost as a professional, has won seven times in the UFC, and has quietly been on the roster longer than Prates, just with fewer appearances. Two knockout artists, one unbeaten and one on a finishing streak, meeting for a belt is about as clean a matchmaking answer as the UFC could have found with the champion unavailable.
For Prates, the stakes go beyond the interim strap. Win, and he becomes the mandatory challenger with a belt of his own and a grievance he has now made public, setting up a unification fight with real heat. Lose, and the 17-year goal he wrote about gets pushed back much further than a few months. Makhachev, meanwhile, gets to watch the division’s two leading contenders settle the question for him before he returns. On January 30 in Toronto, one of them earns the right to be in his path.
