Fight fans have the memory of a goldfish and the loyalty of a fantasy football waiver wire. Joshua Van just said so out loud, and he’s right.
After Islam Makhachev pulled out of UFC 336 and the timeline did what the timeline does, the flyweight contender stepped in to defend him. In a clip posted to X by Dovy, Van said Makhachev “has done everything he needs in the sport” and then landed the real shot: “the way people go from calling him the goat after beating lan Garry to this is something else, Man.” Sportskeeda picked it up too, leading with the other half of his line, “What’s even the point of fighting anymore?”
That question deserves an answer, and here’s mine. Van has the better read on this than most of the people yelling at Makhachev.
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The whiplash is the whole problem
Think about the sequence Van is describing. Makhachev beats Ian Garry, and the GOAT conversation is in full swing. Then a withdrawal from one card, and suddenly the same accounts are treating him like he faked a hamstring to get out of a dentist appointment. One fight off the schedule doesn’t erase a résumé. If your opinion of a champion can flip that hard over a single scratch, you never had an opinion. You had a mood.
I’m the first guy to torch a fighter who ducks. I’ve spent years complaining about champions who sit on belts, pick soft matchups, and wait for the perfect contract. So let’s check whether Makhachev fits that profile, using his own words.
A ducker doesn’t ask for the scarier guy
According to comments posted by Championship Rounds on X, Makhachev said his next fight would be “one of the last in my career,” and then laid out the two names in front of him. “They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me,” he said. “So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in world.”
Read that again with the “he’s scared” crowd in mind. The man named Carlos Prates and Michael Morales, repeated the criticism that each one is a nightmare for him, and asked for whichever of them is better. That’s the opposite of ducking. Ducking is when a champ suddenly discovers a deep interest in fighting someone ranked eighth. Makhachev is publicly volunteering for the hardest fight available. I don’t have to like every word out of a fighter’s mouth to recognize when he’s calling his shot.
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Fair criticism exists, and this isn’t it
If you want to poke Makhachev, there’s a legitimate place to do it, and it has nothing to do with UFC 336. Dovy also dug up his UFC 330 press conference, where Makhachev swore he wouldn’t retire until he hit 20 wins in a row. “17 is not gonna be enough, I will be sure nobody will break my record. It’s going to be 20, MINIMUM,” he said.
So at UFC 330 it was 20, minimum, and now the next one is among the last. Those two statements are going to have a hard time sharing a room. That’s fun to roast, and I’ll happily roast it, because a champion promising a number and then hinting at the exit door is the kind of thing that should get a raised eyebrow. But that’s a debate about his math and his plans. It’s a long way from the idea that he’s soft for missing a card.
Championship Rounds even asked its followers where Makhachev would rank all-time if he retired after beating Prates or Morales. That’s the conversation worth having. People are arguing about his place in history while also pretending one withdrawal exposed him. Pick a lane.
The kid gets it
The funniest wrinkle came from Spinnin Backfist, which replied to a Dovy post listing the ages of Conor McGregor (38), Alex Pereira (39), Kamaru Usman (39), Justin Gaethje (37), Israel Adesanya (37) and Alexander Volkanovski (38) with a simple reminder that Van is 24. Whatever the original point of that exchange was, the number sticks with me here. The 24-year-old flyweight is the one showing perspective, while grown adults with egg avatars are demanding a champion apologize for a schedule change.
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Van sees it from the inside. He knows what a camp costs, and he knows the people screaming about Makhachev will be back on the GOAT train the second he gets his hand raised again. They always are.
So here’s where I land. Makhachev’s 17-versus-20 talk is fair game, and if he walks away short of the number he promised, I’ll be first in line with jokes. But he asked for the scariest name on the board between Prates and Morales. Until that fight gets booked and he backs out of that, anyone calling him a ducker is grading a test he hasn’t taken yet.
