UFC CEO Dana White announced via Instagram Live on Tuesday the main and co-main events for UFC 317, set to headline the promotion’s annual International Fight Week on June28.
In the main event, former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira will take on former featherweight titleholder Ilia Topuria for the vacant lightweight title. Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will be vacating his title to move up to the UFC welterweight division to face newly crowned champion Jack Della Maddalena at a later time and date.
Oliveira is coming off a Fight of the Night-earning performance against Michael Chandler at UFC 309 last November. During his reign from 2021 to 2022, Oliveira successfully defended the title with a third round submission over Dustin Poirier. Former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria is fresh off back-to-back knockouts and title defense over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. UFC 317 would mark the Spaniard’s return to lightweight for the first time since his 2022 KO victory over Jai Herbert.
The co-main event will see flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja collide with the hard-hitting Kai Kara-France. Pantoja enters the fight on a 7-fight tear, with his last three outings being successful title defenses over Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg and Brandon Royval. Kara-France is coming off a quick TKO over Erceg and will be aiming to make the most of his second crack at UFC gold. His first title opportunity came in 2022, when he fought Brandon Moreno for the interim flyweight title.
White also revealed middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis’ next bout. The South African will defend his title against Khamzat Chimaev in the headliner at UFC 319 in Chicago on August 18. Du Plessis most recently held serve in his rematch against Sean Strickland at UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia, besting the former champion on the scorecards for a second time. His third defense is perhaps one of the more anticipated matchups as it has felt like Chimaev’s shot at gold has been brewing for a while.
Chimaev, 31, burst onto the scene in 2020, scoring three wins in one of the more stunning breakouts in recent memory. Five wins over proceeding four years, including victories over Gilbert Burns, Kamaru Usman and a first-round submission of Robert Whittaker solidified his contender status at middleweight. “Borz” finally gets his shot against the in-form Du Plessis.
