The UFC 317 main event sees Ilia Topuria battling Charles Oliveira, with the vacant UFC Lightweight championship on the line following Islam Makhachev vacating the belt.
The fight pits two top contenders against one another, not long after Ilia Topuria made the jump up to Lightweight to fight for the title.
Their bout at UFC 317 will be the main event, although it comes as a somewhat bittersweet moment for Topuria.
That is because he is fighting for the vacant belt and not the champion that he came up to Lightweight to face in the octagon.
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Islam Makhachev vacated the UFC Lightweight championship to move up to Welterweight
The UFC Lightweight championship is vacant after Islam Makhachev relinquished the title following his win over Renato Moicano at UFC 311.
That bout broke the record for the most consecutive Lightweight title defenses in UFC history, although that would be the Russian’s final defense of the belt.
Makhachev was initially planned to face former world champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 317, but Dana White revealed that he vacated the UFC Lightweight title in order to make the step up to the Welterweight division.
The former champion looks set to battle Jack Della Maddalena, following the Australian’s victory over Belal Muhammad to become the UFC Welterweight champion at UFC 315.
Makhachev vs Della Maddalena looks to be one of the Russian’s last three fights, according to his coach, although whether he can make the step-up in weight classes is another thing.
The choice has drawn criticism from many in the UFC, who object to the Russian’s decision to vacate the title.
Paddy Pimblitt criticized Makhachev, admitting he’d have faced Topuria if he were the champion before dropping the belt.
However, Topuria can have very little criticism of the former champion on the matter.
Ilia Topuria did the same to the UFC Featherweight belt before taking this fight
After he knocked out Max Holloway at UFC 308, Topuria decided to vacate his UFC Featherweight title and make the step up to Lightweight.
This was to give the undefeated champion a chance to fight Makhachev in one of the biggest fights the UFC could book in either division.
While Topuria vacated the title to fight Makhachev, he did the same thing as the Russian, so he cannot complain that he’s missed out on a dream fight in the same way just months later.
After Topuria vacated the belt, Volkanovski beat Diego Lopes to win the title despite losing to Topuria in the former champion’s final title defense.