Makhachev retirement looms: champion says next fight is “one of the last” after record 17th straight win

Talk of a Makhachev retirement has moved from rumor to something close to a stated plan. UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev said on X that his next fight will be “one of the last in my career,” a remark that has put a rough timeline on the end of one of the most dominant runs in the sport’s history.

What Makhachev actually said

The 35-year-old Russian stopped short of announcing an exact exit date. He framed the next bout as a final statement. “They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me,” he wrote. “So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in the world.” That means he is targeting the winner of the interim welterweight title fight between Brazil’s Carlos Prates and Ecuador’s Michael Morales.

The wording matters. “One of the last” leaves room for more than one fight, so this is not a formal retirement announcement. Still, it is his clearest signal yet that the end of his career is near.

A record streak and a near-perfect résumé

Makhachev arrives at this point with a strong case for being one of the greatest fighters the UFC has produced. He beat Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 in Philadelphia in August to defend his welterweight belt. It was his 17th straight UFC win, which took him past Anderson Silva’s long-standing record for the longest streak in the promotion’s history. The former lightweight champion is 29-1 overall and is ranked the UFC’s pound-for-pound number one.

UFC chief Dana White has said Makhachev is “on the right path” to being regarded as the promotion’s greatest ever. A Makhachev retirement while still champion, and still unbeaten in the UFC for years, would give that argument a tidy ending.

The scheduling dispute behind the interim title

The announcement comes amid a public disagreement over timing. White said Makhachev was originally due to defend against Prates in January but chose to wait until after Ramadan. Al Jazeera reports that Makhachev will observe the holy month in February and early March 2027 and return in the second quarter.

White was blunt about it. “On average, Islam fights like once a year,” he said, adding that “you can’t hold up divisions like this.” He created the interim title bout to keep the division moving, saying the fight “makes sense.” The champion has since described it as the way to find “the true worthy contender.”

The fighters who will decide his next opponent

Prates and Morales meet on 30 January 2027 at UFC 336 in Toronto, where Al Jazeera says the fight is the co-main event. Prates, 33, has knocked out his last three opponents. Morales, 27, is 19-0 as a professional. One is a proven finisher and the other is unbeaten, which gives Makhachev the style contrast he seems to want for a closing chapter.

The remaining questions are practical. It is unclear how many fights Makhachev has in mind, and the dates for his return depend on the interim result and his Ramadan break. For now, the Makhachev retirement story rests on a single sentence from the champion, but it gives fans a likely end point for a record-setting career.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

File photo: Islam Makhachev 2022 UFC belt.png by Новости ННТ, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.