Brady warns Prates lacks the wrestling defence to trouble Makhachev at welterweight

Sean Brady has publicly backed Islam Makhachev to expose Carlos Prates on the ground, arguing the Brazilian contender lacks the wrestling defence to cope with the UFC welterweight champion’s elite grappling. Brady made the assessment in an interview with Ariel Helwani, drawing on tape study he conducted after previously targeting Prates as a potential opponent.

Prates (24-7) and unbeaten Michael Morales (19-0) are the two leading contenders for the next welterweight title shot against Makhachev (29-1), who has already publicly targeted Prates for his second defence at 170 pounds. Brady (19-2) does not dispute Prates’ finishing ability, but believes footage from his time in ONE FC tells a clear story.

“I think Prates can knock anybody out, for sure,” Brady said. “Out of Prates and Morales, everyone’s gonna say I’m biased because I lost to Morales, but I think Morales will give Islam a harder time. I was asking for the Carlos Prates fight, so I’ve gone back and done the tape study on him, where I’ve seen guys in One FC take him down and beat him on the ground. I think Islam will be able to do the same thing, whereas with Morales, we still don’t know how good he is. We still don’t know how good his ground game is. We don’t know how good his cardio is. We don’t know all these things, and I think that’s gonna play a lot more of a factor.”

The Philadelphia welterweight concedes his view on Morales could be coloured by personal history — Morales finished Brady last November — but insists the Ecuadorian’s untested grappling makes him a genuine unknown for any opponent, including the champion. Brady also suggested Morales should first be required to beat either Ian Garry or Shavkat Rakhmonov before earning a title shot.

Brady himself has moved on from that defeat, posting a dominant decision win over Joaquin Buckley. He is next scheduled to face Gabriel Bonfim (20-1) on 7 November at Meta Apex in Las Vegas.