Carlos Prates’ coach suggests theory for Islam Makhachev’s UFC 336 absence: ‘He’ll be disappointed’

Carlos Prates’ coach doubts that Islam Makhachev will gain valuable insight from UFC 336.

Prates questioned Makhachev’s passion when arguing that if he competes for the love of the sport, he’d be defending his belt in January.

With the champion absent from this card, Prates will face Michael Morales at UFC 336 to crown an interim welterweight titleholder.

The Brazilian’s coach, Cristian Nogueira, recently shared his thoughts on this matchup after they already spent time preparing to face the Russian.

Makhachev's comments on why he isn't fighting at UFC 336 have rubbed fans up the wrong way.

Islam Makhachev suggested that he’s waiting for one clear contender to emerge from the interim title fight in January when explaining why he’s not fighting.

This came as a surprise to many due to the welterweight champion previously saying that he wanted to compete again before Ramadan starts in February.

Makhachev confirmed that he was offered a fight with Carlos Prates in Canada, but will instead be watching on to find out who his next challenger is.

Cristian Nogueira has trained Prates since ‘The Nightmare’ was 11 years old, and remains his main day-to-day coach.

He said that if Makhachev’s decision to not defend his belt in January was a strategic one for research purposes, though he didn’t say that this is what he thinks is the true reason, he doesn’t think that this will work out.

“If the idea was to pull Islam out of this fight so Prates would have to go five rounds and he could gather more footage to study him, he’ll be disappointed, because this fight won’t make it to the third round,” Nogueira told Sherdog.

In his comments about the interim title fight, Islam Makhachev brought up Carlos Prates’ loss to Ian Machado Garry and the fact that he beat the Irishman last time out.

Cristian Nogueira referenced Prates’ downfall in his one and only loss inside the Octagon when explaining why he believes that the judges won’t be needed at UFC 336.

“[Michael] Morales tends to leave himself very exposed because he goes all-in, and that works in Prates’ favor,” he told Sherdog. “We have five rounds to work with, but I believe Carlos will finish him somewhere between the middle and the end of the second round.

“The most important thing is movement and not trying to finish the fight with a single punch,” Nogueira continued. “Prates’ only UFC loss came when he tried to finish the fight with one shot. But he has improved a lot in that area.”