{"id":36751,"date":"2026-02-10T16:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Ian-Garry-Plays-Matchmaker-for-Welterweight-Contenders-Michael-Morales-Responds-200088"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:38:22","slug":"ian-garry-plays-matchmaker-for-welterweight-contenders-michael-morales-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/ian-garry-plays-matchmaker-for-welterweight-contenders-michael-morales-responds\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Garry Plays Matchmaker for Welterweight Contenders; Michael Morales Responds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

There is currently a logjam of
\nUFC<\/a> welterweight title contenders. <\/p>\n

Kamaru
\nUsman<\/a>, Michael
\nMorales<\/a>, Ian Garry<\/a> and
\nCarlos
\nPrates<\/a> are all rallying for a title shot against Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a>. Garry recently played matchmaker for the contenders,
\nsuggesting different bookings for each other while reserving the
\ntitle shot for himself. Garry proposed a matchup between Morales
\nand Prates, while matching up Usman against the recently dethroned
\nformer champion, Jack
\nDella Maddalena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

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

\u201cEverybody has an opinion on who should fight whom in the
\nwelterweight division,\u201d Garry said on Instagram. \u201cHere\u2019s mine:
\nCarlos
\nPrates<\/a> vs. Michael
\nMorales<\/a>. Because it\u2019s two power heavy hitters, and I want to
\nsee who comes out on top. I doubt Morales would take it, because
\nthe truth is, Carles Prates hits harder. I kind of want to see
\nPrates vs. JDM too. But I\u2019m gonna match Jack
\nDella Maddalena<\/a> vs. Kamaru
\nUsman<\/a>\u2026 And finally, the world title fight at welterweight. I
\nwant to see the champion Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> defend his belt against the No. 1 contender in the
\nworld, Ian Machado<\/a>
\nGarry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales: \u2018The Belt Is Mine\u2019<\/h2>\n

Morales (19-0) was clearly not impressed with Garry\u2019s (17-1)
\nmatchmaking. The undefeated Ecuadorian believes he will get the
\nnext title shot against Makhachev.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell [Ian Garry] to suck it and that the belt is mine,\u201d Morales
\nwrote on his Instagram Stories.<\/p>\n

Makhachev dominantly dethroned Maddalena at UFC 322<\/a>
\nthis past November. Morales and Prates emerged as contenders on the
\nsame card with respective knockout wins over Sean Brady<\/a>
\nand Leon
\nEdwards<\/a>. Meanwhile, Garry defeated former champion Belal
\nMuhammad<\/a> a week later at
\nUFC Qatar<\/a>. However, Makhachev has clearly expressed preference
\nfor defending his title against Usman. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\n

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

There is currently a logjam of UFC welterweight title contenders.  Kamaru Usman, Michael Morales, Ian Garry and Carlos Prates are all rallying for a title shot against Islam Makhachev. Garry recently played matchmaker for the contenders, suggesting different bookings for each other while reserving the title shot for himself. Garry proposed a matchup between Morales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36751","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\/36751","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=36751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}