Dana White has confirmed the main event for the international Vechtweek of UFC after months of anticipation.
UFC 317 has only been removed six weeks, but until an announcement had to be given a headliner tonight through the promotion. It has now been confirmed that Ilia Topuria is confronted with Charles Oliveira for the empty lightweight title.
In the Co-Main event, Alexandre Pantoja Kai Kara-France records for the flight weight in a rematch of their TUF 24 semi-final matchup. In the event, Paulo Costa will also return to action against Roman Kopylov on a stacked pay-per-view card.
Dana White makes a surprise UFC 317 announcement
Out of the blue tonight, UFC CEO Dana White went to social media to announce his main event for UFC 317 on 28 June in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The promotional boss is known for random jumping on Instagram live to let fans know large fight news, and tonight was no different.
He confirmed that Ilia Topuria will have his long -awaited lightweight debut against former world champion Charles Oliveira. The Brazilian steps in which the first plans were for Islam Makhachev to defend his belt in a 'champion vs champion' Matchup, where the Russian now agrees with a title shot of Welterweight.
There had also been rumors about a middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev. However, it seems that fighting is being held for later in the year, in which both men have been in accordance with orally.
Ilia Topuria gave his featherweight title to pursue lightweight gold
After beating Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight title last year, Ilia Topuria defended his belt against Max Holloway on UFC 308. He stood opposite Volkanovski to promote a potential rematch immediately after his first defense, but has since continued with the idea.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Instead, he decided to go up in weight to pursue Makhachev and the lightweight belt. The Russian now, however, Jackt Jack della Maddalena, who just beat his teammate Belal Muhammad to win the belt on Saturday evening.
Topuria will be a relatively small lightweight when he makes the movement, after he has previously fought for a Bantamweight belt in Cage Warriors. But after never lost in MMA, he is convinced that his power will translate a division.