Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira set for UFC 317; Makhachev vacating title
Ilia Topuria will look to add a second UFC championship belt to his collection when he headlines UFC 317 this summer. The former undisputed featherweight champ is set to face former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for a vacant lightweight title during the organization’s annual International Fight Week in late June. Undisputed reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who’s also the UFC’s No. 1-ranked fighter on the pound-for-pound list, will move up to welterweight later this year to challenge new 170-pound champion Jack Della Maddalena at a yet-to-be-determined event. UFC president Dana White made the announcement Tuesday evening during a social-media live stream. UFC 317 is scheduled to take place June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Topuria became the 145-pound champion roughly 15 months ago when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Topuria then defended the title at UFC 308 in October when he became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway, a former featherweight champ and BMF Title winner. The 28-yeaer-old Topuria officially vacated the featherweight title earlier this year, citing he was no longer willing to make the draining weight cut down to 145 pounds and that he was moving up a division to pursue a second title. The 16-0 Spanish-Georgian mixed martial arts star teased in April that he had begun training camp for his next fight, indicating International Fight Week would be when he returned to the cage in a new division. Topuria told Joe Rogan in an April podcast interview that he wasn’t interested in any non-title matchups at lightweight. Makhachev’s similar pursuit of double-champ status complicated the situation and resulted in the UFC creating a vacant/interim title. “You are gonna see, at 155, I’m gonna touch someone and I’m gonna (knock) his lights out,” Topuria told Rogan of what fans can expect from him in his new, permanent weight class. “I don’t even need to touch his chin. If I touch his head, it will explode. I feel so powerful at that weight class, so stable on the ground. ‘You want to wrestle? Let’s wrestle. No problem. I have the gas tank for five days not five rounds.’” Topuria is already 1-0 in lightweight bouts thanks to a 2022 knockout win over Jai Herbert. Topuria was 3-0 in the UFC at the time when he accepted a bout up at lightweight on relatively short notice and put Herbert to sleep with a devastating punching combination not entirely unlike the one he used to put away Volkanovski to win the title. White did not attend the UFC 315 post-fight press conference this past weekend in Montreal after Della Maddalena defeated Belal Muhammad to become the new titleholder in the 170-pound division. Had Muhammad defended the title, the UFC would’ve likely gone in a different direction for UFC 317. Muhammad had previously stated he wasn’t interested in facing Makhachev since the two are friendly and have trained together in the past. That’s why a Muhammad vs. Makhachev matchup was not considered a future option. While a Makhachev vs. Topuria superfight is what most of the MMA fan base wanted to see, Makhachev and his team had made it clear in January ahead of his UFC 311 title defence that they were not interested in facing Topuria since half of Makhachev’s title defences have already been against a featherweight champion and not a natural lightweight. Makhachev became lightweight champion in October 2022 when he submitted Oliveira within two rounds at UFC 280. He is 27-1 in pro MMA and has won 15 consecutive bouts dating back to 2015. The 33-year-old teammate and protégé of former 155-pound kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov made his first two title defences in 2023 against Volkanovski who at the time was the reigning featherweight champion – first winning a classic five-round decision at UFC 284, then knocking Volkanovski out in Round 1 of their short-notice rematch at UFC 294. Makhachev went on to earn submission wins over Dustin Poirier at UFC 301 last June then over Renato Moicano at UFC 311 five months ago. Neither Poirier nor Moicano were the No. 1 contender at the time and both of those matchups were put together more because of timing rather than merit. Moicano filled in for current No. 1-ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan on extremely short notice when Tsarukyan withdrew from a scheduled title fight with Makhachev the day before UFC 311. Tsarukyan has been in the UFC’s doghouse, so to speak, ever since then and reportedly recently turned down a matchup with No. 7 lightweight contender Mateusz Gamrot because he felt his next fight should be for the title. Tsarukyan’s most recent appearance was a three-round decision win 13 months ago over Oliveira at UFC 300. Oliveira bounced back from that loss with a five-round unanimous decision win over Michael Chandler in November at UFC 309. The Brazilian fan favourite is the No. 2-ranked lightweight contender and No. 15 pound-for-pound, one of only three non-ch
Ilia Topuria will look to add a second UFC championship belt to his collection when he headlines UFC 317 this summer.
The former undisputed featherweight champ is set to face former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for a vacant lightweight title during the organization’s annual International Fight Week in late June.
Undisputed reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who’s also the UFC’s No. 1-ranked fighter on the pound-for-pound list, will move up to welterweight later this year to challenge new 170-pound champion Jack Della Maddalena at a yet-to-be-determined event.
UFC president Dana White made the announcement Tuesday evening during a social-media live stream.
UFC 317 is scheduled to take place June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Topuria became the 145-pound champion roughly 15 months ago when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Topuria then defended the title at UFC 308 in October when he became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway, a former featherweight champ and BMF Title winner.
The 28-yeaer-old Topuria officially vacated the featherweight title earlier this year, citing he was no longer willing to make the draining weight cut down to 145 pounds and that he was moving up a division to pursue a second title.
The 16-0 Spanish-Georgian mixed martial arts star teased in April that he had begun training camp for his next fight, indicating International Fight Week would be when he returned to the cage in a new division.
Topuria told Joe Rogan in an April podcast interview that he wasn’t interested in any non-title matchups at lightweight. Makhachev’s similar pursuit of double-champ status complicated the situation and resulted in the UFC creating a vacant/interim title.
“You are gonna see, at 155, I’m gonna touch someone and I’m gonna (knock) his lights out,” Topuria told Rogan of what fans can expect from him in his new, permanent weight class. “I don’t even need to touch his chin. If I touch his head, it will explode. I feel so powerful at that weight class, so stable on the ground. ‘You want to wrestle? Let’s wrestle. No problem. I have the gas tank for five days not five rounds.’”
Topuria is already 1-0 in lightweight bouts thanks to a 2022 knockout win over Jai Herbert. Topuria was 3-0 in the UFC at the time when he accepted a bout up at lightweight on relatively short notice and put Herbert to sleep with a devastating punching combination not entirely unlike the one he used to put away Volkanovski to win the title.
White did not attend the UFC 315 post-fight press conference this past weekend in Montreal after Della Maddalena defeated Belal Muhammad to become the new titleholder in the 170-pound division.
Had Muhammad defended the title, the UFC would’ve likely gone in a different direction for UFC 317. Muhammad had previously stated he wasn’t interested in facing Makhachev since the two are friendly and have trained together in the past. That’s why a Muhammad vs. Makhachev matchup was not considered a future option.
While a Makhachev vs. Topuria superfight is what most of the MMA fan base wanted to see, Makhachev and his team had made it clear in January ahead of his UFC 311 title defence that they were not interested in facing Topuria since half of Makhachev’s title defences have already been against a featherweight champion and not a natural lightweight.
Makhachev became lightweight champion in October 2022 when he submitted Oliveira within two rounds at UFC 280. He is 27-1 in pro MMA and has won 15 consecutive bouts dating back to 2015.
The 33-year-old teammate and protégé of former 155-pound kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov made his first two title defences in 2023 against Volkanovski who at the time was the reigning featherweight champion – first winning a classic five-round decision at UFC 284, then knocking Volkanovski out in Round 1 of their short-notice rematch at UFC 294.
Makhachev went on to earn submission wins over Dustin Poirier at UFC 301 last June then over Renato Moicano at UFC 311 five months ago. Neither Poirier nor Moicano were the No. 1 contender at the time and both of those matchups were put together more because of timing rather than merit.
Moicano filled in for current No. 1-ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan on extremely short notice when Tsarukyan withdrew from a scheduled title fight with Makhachev the day before UFC 311.
Tsarukyan has been in the UFC’s doghouse, so to speak, ever since then and reportedly recently turned down a matchup with No. 7 lightweight contender Mateusz Gamrot because he felt his next fight should be for the title. Tsarukyan’s most recent appearance was a three-round decision win 13 months ago over Oliveira at UFC 300.
Oliveira bounced back from that loss with a five-round unanimous decision win over Michael Chandler in November at UFC 309. The Brazilian fan favourite is the No. 2-ranked lightweight contender and No. 15 pound-for-pound, one of only three non-champions on the P4P list.
Meanwhile, Topuria sits No. 3 on the UFC’s P4P behind only Makhachev and Jon Jones.
Topuria will be the fourth undisputed UFC featherweight champion to also challenge for a lightweight title, joining Volkanovski and Holloway, both of whom fell short, and Conor McGregor, who in 2016 became the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight champion.
