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Michael Morales (19-0) and Prates (24-7) are the leading contenders for the next Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title shot against Makhachev (29-1). Brady believes Morales will give Makhachev a harder time than Prates will, citing how the Ecuadorian is more of an unknown and his grappling hasn’t been put to the test in the UFC.
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Sean Brady explains why Michael Morales poses a tougher test for Islam Makhachev
While Brady (19-2) acknowledges Prates’ dangerous knockout power, he believes Makhachev will have his way against the Brazilian on the ground. Brady notes that we’re yet to see Morales get challenged on the ground, hence making him more of a puzzle for the UFC welterweight champ.
“I think Prates can knock anybody out, for sure,” Brady told Ariel Helwani. “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.”
Morales hasn’t fought since finishing Brady last November and the latter believes the unbeaten 170-pounder needs to beat either Ian Garry or Shavkat Rakhmonov before fighting for the title. Moreover, Makhachev has already set his sights on Prates for his second title defense at welterweight.
Meanwhile, Brady rebounded from the loss to Morales with a dominant decision win over Joaquin Buckley. He is now scheduled to fight Gabriel Bonfim (20-1) on Nov. 7 at Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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