Topuria vs Oliveira at 317 Confirmed - 6/28

UltimateGround
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Dana White and Ilia Topuria are on the same page when it comes to their UFC 317 plans.

On Thursday, Topuria appeared on Spanish program El Hormiguero, where he discussed his expectation that his next fight will be against lightweight champion Islam Makhachev or top contender Charles Oliveira.

Topuria’s fate is presumably tied to the main event of UFC 315, which sees Makhachev’s close friend Belal Muhammad defending his welterweight title against Jack Della Maddalena. Should Della Maddalena pull off an upset win, Makhachev is likely to move up to 170 pounds to challenge him; otherwise, Makhachev likely defends against Topuria, who recently vacated his featherweight championship to chase a second title.

UFC CEO Dana White was asked about Topuria’s comments at Thursday’s press conference in Montreal and he confirmed that the plan is for “El Matador” to fight either Makhachev or Oliveira at UFC 317 on June 28 in Las Vegas.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of moving parts right now and yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” White said. He did not elaborate, so it remains to be seen if a fight between Topuria and Oliveira would be for an interim or vacant lightweight title in Makhachev’s absence.

White and Topuria’s latest comments are consistent with statements they’ve made in the past, with White saying this past February that Makhachev was not guaranteed to be Topuria’s first opponent in his move to 155 pounds. In March, Topuria claimed the UFC had promised him a title fight, but he was unsure of who the opponent would be.

All eyes are now on Saturday’s main event, as the result of Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena will clearly have ripple effects in more than one division.

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It has to be charles.

I wanna see that

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You would think he would want one fight at a bigger weight class before fighting the gorilla

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Along with the main and co-main events being announced, UFC 317 is as follows:

  • Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira
  • Alexandre Pantoja vs Kai Kara France
  • Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov
  • Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape
  • Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodriguez
  • Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano
  • Jhonata Diniz vs. Justin Tafa
  • Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Coretz
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Topuria is putting Charles to sleep round 1

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Besides the obvious, Dariush vs Moicano is a great fight.

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Hope Ilia gets merked and choked out in the first round just to see the stupid look on his face when he realizes he left a title and championship pay that goes with it to fight for 2.5 mins and get tapped lol

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I don’t hate Topuria but I would love to see Olives spoil his plans. Plus seeing him with the strap again would make my heart warm.

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Charles will be put to sleep if he doesnt get the fight down fas. Heneeds to pull guard if he cant get a takedown

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This is one of the dumbest arguments that has ever existed in any combat sport. We’ve seen it time and time again. Jon wasn’t a legit champ because he didn’t fight Francis, DC wasn’t a legit champ because he didn’t fight Jon, blah blah blah…..

IF Ilia wins the belt…. He’s the champ. I’m not really a fan of guys moving up a weight class and get an automatic title shot, but alas, here we are. IF Topuria was a “lesser” champ, it would be because of his lack of resume at 155, and not because he didn’t beat Islam. Islam is moving up therefore he is no longer the champ, and nothing will change that. BLAF isn’t gonna retire the 155 division because one guy left. It is what it is. A new king will be crowned.

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Its the muslim fan boys…they’re unbearable