Ilia Topuria will give up with Charles Oliveira on UFC 317, as it has been announced, as the former title holders compete to crown a new lightweight champion.
Topuria held the belt of featherweight from February 2024 to February, before he ran the gold to go to lightweight, with the intention of challenging a second title.
With the Georgian-Spaniard Adamant that the UFC would honor its wish, the only thing that remains to determine the opponent of Topuria; The then lightweight champion Islam Makhachev had his own plan to challenge the Welterweight belt, but said he would not fight against friend Belal Muhammad, who owned that belt until Saturday.
As such, the decision loss of Muhammad for Jack della Maddalena has opened the door for Makhachev to challenge the title of 170 pounds, which means that Topuria has been left to face Oliveira for the empty lightweight gold.
And the couple will meet each other on UFC 317 on 28 June, because Topuria wants to become a champion of two weight, while Oliveira tries to start his second rule at lightweight.
De Brazilian, 35, won the empty title in 2021 and stopped Michael Chandler to do this. He then recorded a successful defending defense by Dustin Poirier, but his second defense against Justin Gaethje in 2022-it was hit by a narrow miss at the weightings. Oliveira was stripped of the title The night before he fought against Gaethje, and he was not eligible to win back the gold in that game.
In any case, “Do Bronx” submitted Gaethje and later submitted a meeting with Makhachev in 2022. In that fight, Makhachacthev Oliveira – the largest submission artist in the history of UFC, statistically – submitted to win the belt. The Russian then achieved a record of four successful title defense.
A rematch was planned with Oliveira in 2023, but the Brazilian suffered a nasty cut over his eye and cost him a title chance. That episode took place after Oliveira Beneil Dariush stopped, and he has since lost to Arman Tsarukyan and Chandler for the second time. The last result, in November, marked the most recent outing of Oliveira.
In the meantime, Topuria kept his undefeated record intact while he stormed at the featherweight title, which he won with a knockout from long-secured champion Alexander Volkanovski last February. In October, 28-year-old kept De Riem with a knockout from former champion Max Holloway.
#Ilia #Topuria #Charles #Oliveira #booked #crown #UFC #Lightweight #Champion