This is the UFC 317 live blog for Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira, the main card vacant lightweight championship bout Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Topuria and Oliveira—No. 2 and No. 17, respectively, in the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings—vie for a belt left vacant by Islam Makhachev, who moves up to welterweight to challenge Jack Della Maddalena.
Though Topuria (16-0) would probably have preferred to become lightweight champion by dethroning Makhachev, he still has the chance to become a two-division titleholder, joining an exclusive list that includes legends Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes, and Randy Couture, among others. “El Matador” vacated his featherweight title following back-to-back knockouts of featherweight greats Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway and if he puts Oliveira down in similar fashion, it could give Topuria a case for the best three-fight run in MMA history.
Oliveira (35-10, 1 NC) can also make history as a championship win would make him the first UFC fighter ever to capture the 155-pound belt twice. The most prolific UFC finisher of all time, “do Bronx” won and defended the lightweight title in 2021 before losing it on the scale ahead of his UFC 274 clash with Justin Gaethje. He submitted Gaethje, but failed to reclaim the vacant title when he was stopped by Makhachev at UFC 280. Oliveira now gets another chance to prove that “the champion has a name.”
Check out the UFC 317 live blog for Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira below.
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