{"id":39952,"date":"2026-08-17T09:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T09:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Next-up-Islam-Makhachev-names-most-deserving-title-challenger-202385"},"modified":"2026-08-17T09:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T09:13:16","slug":"next-up-islam-makhachev-names-most-deserving-title-challenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/next-up-islam-makhachev-names-most-deserving-title-challenger\/","title":{"rendered":"Next up? Islam Makhachev names most deserving title challenger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> has named the ideal next challenger for his
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> welterweight title.<\/p>\n

Makhachev retained his belt with a hard-fought victory over
\nIan
\nGarry<\/a> at UFC
\n330<\/a> in Philadelphia. The Russian revealed that Carlos
\nPrates<\/a> is the preferred next opponent after recording his first
\ntitle defense at welterweight.<\/p>\n

\n

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

Islam Makhachev backs Carlos Prates for next UFC welterweight
\ntitle shot<\/h2>\n

Prates and Michael
\nMorales<\/a>, who were both in attendance at UFC 330, are in the
\nrunning for the next title shot, with Makhachev believing the
\nBrazilian currently has the stronger case. He dismissed Shavkat
\nRakhmonov<\/a>, who\u2019s been sidelined with injuries since December
\n2024, and Morales, who hasn\u2019t been as active as Prates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask me today, Shavkat [Rakhmonov] is not fighting; Prates
\nis still fighting, still active,\u201d Makhachev said during the
\nParamount+ post-fight show. \u201cMorales also is good, but I don\u2019t
\nremember the last time he fought. If you ask who is more deserving,
\nI think Carlos Prates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales and Rakhmonov are both unbeaten, while Prates holds a
\nrecord of 24-7. The latter\u2019s last loss came against Garry in April
\n2025, but he has remained active since then, picking up finishes
\nagainst Geoff Neal<\/a>
\nand two former champs: Leon
\nEdwards<\/a> and Jack
\nDella Maddalena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

In case you missed it last night… \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> believes that Carlos
\nPrates<\/a> has done enough to earn the next shot at welterweight \ud83c\udfc6
\npic.twitter.com\/b33GmpAvY0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC on Paramount+ (@UFConParamount)
\nAugust 16, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Islam Makhachev has named the ideal next challenger for his Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title. Makhachev retained his belt with a hard-fought victory over Ian Garry at UFC 330 in Philadelphia. The Russian revealed that Carlos Prates is the preferred next opponent after recording his first title defense at welterweight. Advertisement Islam Makhachev backs Carlos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39952","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\/39952","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=39952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}