{"id":36635,"date":"2026-02-04T16:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Michael-Morales-Refuses-to-Idolize-Islam-Makhachev-200011"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:42:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:42:32","slug":"michael-morales-refuses-to-idolize-islam-makhachev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/michael-morales-refuses-to-idolize-islam-makhachev\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Morales Refuses to Idolize Islam Makhachev"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Michael
\nMorales<\/a> is not in awe of Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Makhachev won the welterweight title with a dominant unanimous
\ndecision victory over Jack
\nDella Maddalena<\/a> at UFC 322<\/a>
\nthis past November. Morales (19-0) also emerged as a fresh
\ncontender on the same card with a brutal knockout win over Sean
\nBrady<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While other contenders like Carlos
\nPrates<\/a> and Ian Garry<\/a> are
\nalso waiting in the wings, Makhachev wants to defend his title
\nagainst former champion Kamaru
\nUsman<\/a>. However, Morales is also being considered a frontrunner
\nfor the next title shot against Makhachev. Morales is not buying
\ninto the air of invincibility around Makhachev. The undefeated
\nEcuadorian sees Makhachev as just another athlete who hurts and
\nbleeds like he does. Morales just wants the title and is happy to
\nhave Makhachev keep his legacy.<\/p>\n

\u2018He Can Have His Legacy\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see Islam as a threat,\u201d Morales told Hablemos MMA. \u201c\u2026 He\u2019s
\nan athlete just like me, he\u2019s a person just like me. He bleeds just
\nlike me. So all I want is to take the title. He can have his
\nlegacy, his history, but that\u2019s his, not mine. What\u2019s mine is mine.
\nI\u2019ve worked very hard for what I want. And I won\u2019t give him that
\nrespect like, \u2018Oh, you are the champion, all honors to you.\u2019 No, I
\nwant to be champ. So I\u2019m going to work very hard to take his title.
\nI\u2019m not going to idolize someone just because everyone else admires
\nthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makhachev (28-1) is likely a future
\nUFC<\/a> Hall of Famer with the legacy he has built. The Dagestani
\nstandout is on a 15-fight winning streak since his lone
\nprofessional loss against Adriano
\nMartins<\/a> in his sophomore UFC outing in 2015. Makhachev defended
\nhis lightweight title four times, the most in the division\u2019s
\nhistory, before moving up to welterweight. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have respect for Islam. He bleeds
\njust like me. I\u2019m not going to idolize him just because everyone
\nelse does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael
\nMorales<\/a> believes Islam isn\u2019t superhuman and refuses to put him
\non a pedestal if they ever meet in the future.<\/p>\n

Via: @hablemosmma<\/a>
\npic.twitter.com\/yQLvFoXEod<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nFebruary 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Morales is not in awe of Islam Makhachev.  Makhachev won the welterweight title with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 this past November. Morales (19-0) also emerged as a fresh contender on the same card with a brutal knockout win over Sean Brady.  Advertisement While other contenders like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}