Ilia Topuria will make his return to lightweight to battle ex-division titleholder Charles Oliveira for the vacant title
Dana White has finally made the star card official UFC 317, which will be led by the fight between Ilia Topuria (16-0) and Charles Oliveira (35-10) with the lightweight belt in play.
The head of the company announced through an Instagram live that Islam Makhachev he will move up to welterweight to face Jack Della Maddalena, with a date yet to be defined, which leaves the title vacant.
After this he made official the long-awaited fight between ‘El Matador’ and ‘Do Bronx’, in addition to the rest of main fights of the evening.
The confrontation between the Hispanic-Georgian and the Brazilian will not be the only one with a belt at stake, since Alexandre Pantoja (29-5) will defend your flyweight title before Kai Kara-France (25-11).
The Brazilian fighter has become one of the most dominant champions of the last years at 125 pounds, and will try to beat Israel’s gym buddy Adesanya to get his fourth defense in just two years. In front you will have a striker experienced that has knocked out rivals such as Steve Erceg or Cody Garbrandt.
Dana White has also used this card to reschedule fights that had been canceled in the past, such as that of Brandon Royval vs Manel Kape or Beneil Dariush vs Renato Moicano.
In the case of Royval and Kape it was one injury of the first, the one that caused it to be postponed, although the Portuguese fighter he beat Asu Almabayev after hearing the news to strengthen its position in the ranking of flyweight. Whoever wins this fight will surely be him next contender on the belt, with permission from Brandon Moreno.
The story of Moicano and Dariush is totally different, since the fight was initially agreed for him UFC 311 from last January. However, one day before the event Arman Tsarukyan was injured the back, and it was Moicano who faced Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt. The Brazilian went subdued in the first round, and now Dariush will have a chance to fight him after five months waiting. In case the American loses, it’s probably his final goodbye from the UFC.
The return of Paulo Costa
Another important name returning to the octagon after a year of inactivity is Paulo Costa, that will face Roman Kopylov in the middleweight division. The Brazilian has lost four of his last five fights, while the Russian has won six of the last seven -five per KO-.
This confrontation will serve to relaunch Costa’s career, or to allow a guy as talented as Kopylov climb the ranking and thus be able to opt for great things within 185 pounds.
Besides Dana White he has also made other interesting fights official, such as that of Jhonatan Diniz vs Justin Tafa, the of Jack Hermansson vs Gregory ‘Robocop’ Rodrigues or the of Tracy Cortez vs Vivian Araújo.
The company needed big announcements for the biggest billboard of 2025, and it did. After the first few months of the year where no major fighting had taken place, the UFC has already made a move, and in what way.