UFC 317 — a.k.a. 2025 International Fight Week — finally has its pay-per-view (PPV) main event locked in after UFC 315’s headliner this past weekend left mixed martial arts (MMA) fans buzzing with questions.
Indeed, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO, Dana White, just dropped a bombshell: former Featherweight kingpin, Ilia Topuria, will clash with former Lightweight roost-ruler, Charles Oliveira, for the vacant 155-pound title inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That’s right, current Lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, is surrendering his belt to chase Welterweight glory later this year, setting the stage for this epic showdown.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Topuria (16-0) has been out of action since UFC 308 back in Oct. 2024 and is coming off savage back-to-back knockout wins over Alexander Volkanovski (watch it) and Max Holloway (highlights).
“La Leyenda” vacated his own Featherweight title prior to UFC 314 to chase greatness and become a “double champion.” He has told everyone that no matter what, he’d be fighting for an undisputed title.
And he was right.
Oliveira (35-10), meanwhile, worked his way back to the Lightweight title by defeating Michael Chandler in his last outing (highlights) and leap-frogging UFC black sheep Arman Tsarukyan, whom he lost to at UFC 300.
“Do Bronx” has a chance to become a two-time champion with a win over Topuria.
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
In addition to that blockbuster main event, Flyweight champion, Alexandre Pantoja will take on No. 4-ranked Kai Kara-France in UFC 317’s co-feature. The two fought back on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 24, with Pantoja winning in the quarterfinals.
Pantoja (29-5) will be going for his fourth title defense and is riding a seven-fight win streak with victories over Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg, Brandon Royval (twice) and Brandon Moreno, among others.
Kara-France (25-11), on the other hand, snapped his two-fight losing streak in his last outing, stopping the aforementioned Erceg in the first round to lock up a title shot and has been waiting on the sidelines for it.
Here is what UFC 317 is looking like so far:
Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara France
Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano
Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape
Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov
Tracy Cortez vs. Viviane Araujo
Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodrigues
To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.
