Dana White has confirmed the main event for UFC’s International Fight Week after months of anticipation.
UFC 317 is just six weeks away, but until an announcement tonight had yet to be given a headliner by the promotion. It has now been confirmed that Ilia Topuria will face Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title.
In the co-main event, Alexandre Pantoja will take on Kai Kara-France for the flyweight title in a rematch of their TUF 24 semi-final matchup. The event will also see Paulo Costa return to action against Roman Kopylov on a stacked pay-per-view card.
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Dana White makes surprise UFC 317 announcement
Out of the blue this evening, UFC CEO Dana White took to social media to announce his main event for UFC 317 on June 28 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The promotional boss is known for randomly jumping on Instagram live to let fans know major fight news, and tonight was no different.
He confirmed that Ilia Topuria will get his long-awaited lightweight debut against former world champion Charles Oliveira. The Brazilian steps in where initial plans were for Islam Makhachev to defend his belt in a ‘champion vs champion’ matchup, with the Russian now agreeing to a welterweight title shot.
There had also been rumors of a middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev. However, it seems that fight is being held for later in the year with both men verbally agreeing to it publicly.
Ilia Topuria gave up his featherweight title to pursue lightweight gold
After defeating Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight title last year, Ilia Topuria defended his belt against Max Holloway at UFC 308. He faced off with Volkanovski to promote a potential rematch immediately after his first defense, but has since moved on from the idea.
Instead, he decided to move up in weight to pursue Makhachev and the lightweight belt. However, the Russian is now chasing Jack Della Maddalena, who just defeated his teammate Belal Muhammad to win the belt on Saturday night.
Topuria will be a relatively small lightweight when he makes the move up, having previously fought for a bantamweight belt in Cage Warriors. But having never lost in MMA, he is confident that his power will translate up a division.