In the UFC 317 Main Event, Ilia sees Topuria fighting against Charles Oliveira, with the empty UFC Lightweight Championship on the line that is following Islam Makhachev that leaves the belt.
The battle sets two top candidates against each other, not long after Ilia Topuria made the leap to light weight to fight for the title.
Their fight on UFC 317 will be the main event, although it comes a somewhat bittersweet moment for Topuria.
That's because he is fighting for the empty belt and not on the champion he came to see lightweight to face in the Octagon.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Islam Makhachev has left the UFC Lightweight Championship to go to good weight
The UFC Lightweight Championship is empty after the Islam Makhachev gave the title after his victory over Renato Moicano at UFC 311.
That fight broke the record for the most successive lightweight defending defense in the history of UFC, although that would be the last defense of the Russian belt.
Makhachev was initially planned to meet former world champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 317, but Dana White revealed that he left the UFC light weight title to make the step to the Welterweight Division.
The former champion seems to be fighting Jack della Maddalena, after the victory of the Australian at Belal Muhammad to become the UFC Welterweight champion at UFC 315.
According to his coach, Makhachev vs della Maddalena seems to be one of the last three fights of the Russian, although whether he can take the step in weight classes is something else.
The choice has received criticism from many in the UFC, who object to the decision of the Russian to leave the title.
Paddy Pimblitt criticized Makhachev and admitted that he would have received Topuria if he was the champion before he dropped the belt.
However, Topuria can have very little criticism of the former champion about this.
Ilia Topuria did the same with the UFC belt of featherweight before he took this fight
After he had eliminated Max Holloway on UFC 308, Topuria decided to leave his UFC -Fedweight title and take the step to lightweight.
This was to give the unbeaten champion the opportunity to fight against Makhachev in one of the largest fights that the UFC could book in both division.
While Topuria has left the title to fight against Makhachev, he did the same as the Russian, so he can't complain that he missed a dream fight in the same way just a few months later.
After Topuria had left the Riem, Volkanovski defeated Diego Lopes to win the title, despite the losing of Topuria in the last title defense of the former champion.