LAS VEGAS – International Fight Week has become the most significant week on the UFC calendar over the last decade-plus. Since its inception in 2012, some of the sport’s most decorated stars have headlined what is traditionally the strongest pay-per-view card of the year.
It provides perhaps the biggest stage in the sport, as fans from across the globe flock to Sin City for events like the UFC X convention to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in addition to the WrestleMania-esque card.
That stage belongs to Ilia Topuria on Saturday night, as the 28-year-old powerhouse of Georgian and Spanish origin looks to become the 10th two-division champion in UFC history against Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. The two will be fighting for the vacant UFC lightweight title after pound-for-pound king Islam Makachev vacated the belt in favor of a welterweight superfight with Jack Della Maddalena.
Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja is seeking his fourth title defense in the co-main event, though he has a tall task against promising Kiwi striker Kai Kara-France. Other fights on the main card include Renato Moicano vs. Beneil Dariush, Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van and Payton Talbott vs. Felipe Lima. With two worthy main events and four legitimate rising stars, you’d be hard pressed to find a better card top to bottom in all of mixed martial arts this year.
Topuria vs Oliveira
Once it was clear that Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall wasn’t happening and that Makachev was vacating his belt, Topuria vs. Oliveira for the lightweight championship became the obvious headliner for International Fight Week.
Topuria is widely considered to be on a trajectory that could eclipse even the most remarkable careers we’ve seen in mixed martial arts. Still, he’s never faced a battle as significant as the one he will be sent to on Saturday. Failure on the world stage would be an unaffordable setback on his quest to be the greatest mixed martial artist in history, while victory in the fashion he predicts on Saturday would propel him to the level of stardom that his ever-so-confident persona commands.
“He's going to start to look for the takedowns and for the ground game, but I think that it's going to be very quick because I'm going to finish him in the first two or three minutes,” Topuria told UFC.com. “I'm not going to need to close the distance with him. We're going to find each other in the first second. When that happens, I'm too much for my opponents.”
In Oliveira’s case, he’s seen this movie before. Topuria isn’t the first decorated fighter to promise an early finish against Oliveira and he would be far from the first fighter to have those tables turn on him. Oliveira’s 20 career finishes is the most in UFC history and even the most daunting competitors have trouble reaching the final bell against him.
“In reality, everyone knows what’s going to happen,” Oliveira said bluntly. “He’s another guy talking who’s going to fold in front of me.”
Main Card Notes
Kai Kara-France has one previous title opportunity in his career, a third-round TKO loss to Brandon Moreno for the interim flyweight championship at UFC 277 in July 2022. Kara-France also lost his next fight by split decision to Amir Albazi before beating Steve Erceg by first-round knockout in his most recent fight at UFC 305 in August.
Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van will serve as a flyweight championship eliminator, with the winner earning an opportunity against whoever emerges from the Pantoja vs. Kara-France fight. Joshua Van previously fought just three weeks ago on the UFC 316 card, beating Bruno Gustavo Da Silva by third-round TKO.
Van also fought at UFC 313 in March, defeating Rei Tsuruya by unanimous decision. Manel Kape was originally supposed to take on Brandon Royval in this bout but had to pull out due to injury, marking the second time this year that a bout between Kape and Royval was put on the shelf after Royval had to pull out ahead of a prospective March 1 bout with Kape.
Payton Talbott was on a fast trajectory as one of the UFC’s most promising stars before suffering an untimely and discouraging loss to Raoni Barcelos at UFC 311 in January. Considering that Talbott’s opponent, Felipe Lima, is also a rising star, this is a bout we could be looking back at as a main event-worthy fight in a few years' time.