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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