UFC 317 Preview

The UFC is back at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this weekend for a double header of title fights. The build up to the final two fights of the night gives UFC fans guaranteed fireworks with fighters like Brandon Royval, Joshua Van, Felipe Lima, Payton Talbott, and Terrance McKinney. Then, to close out the card, Alexandre Pantoja looks for his fourth consecutive title defense against Kai Kara-France in the co-main event, and in the main event, former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria looks to claim the vacant lightweight belt against the former lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira.

At this point in his career, Alexandre Pantoja is a UFC vet, as he was on Season 24 of The Ultimate Fighter back in 2016. He didn’t end up winning that season, as he beat his opponent for this weekend, Kai Kara-France, and then lost in the semi-final round, but Pantoja was still given a shot in the UFC. In his first three years in the promotion, from 2017 to 2020, Pantoja put together a record of 6-3 and hasn’t lost again after his loss to Askar Askarov in 2020. Since that loss, Pantoja has won seven straight fights, submitted three of those opponents, and captured the flyweight belt. Two consecutive submissions over Brandon Royval and Alex Perez earned Pantoja a title shot against the champion at the time, Brandon Moreno. This was going to be the third time Pantoja and Moreno would step into the octagon together, and with Pantoja winning both of the other two fights, he must’ve been feeling confident. While this did end up being the closest of the three fights, Pantoja was still able to take home the victory and the UFC flyweight belt. His first title defense was another rematch, but this time against Brandon Royval, where he was once again able to stop his opponent from getting revenge. Pantoja’s last two title defenses were finally against new opponents, and he beat Steve Erceg via unanimous decision in a very close fight, as well as submitting the former RIZIN champion Kai Asakura last year in December. After losing to Pantoja on The Ultimate Fighter nine years ago, Kai Kara-France had to go get a few wins outside of the UFC before getting the call back. Since getting into the UFC, Kara-France has gone 8-4 and has now earned his chance to fight for a championship belt. His four losses have only come against the top contenders in the division in Brandon Moreno twice, Brandon Royval, and then a very contested loss to Amir Albazi in 2023. While technically Kara-France isn’t on a win streak, most people think he should’ve been given the decision win over Albazi. In his most recent fight, which happened in August of last year, Kara-France scored a great knockout over former title challenger Steve Erceg. With their first fight nine years in the past, Pantoja looks to add another title defense to his reign, and Kara-France wants to show how much better he is while becoming champion.

Then, to end off the night, UFC fans get one of the best possible fights the promotion could put together, as Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira will step into the octagon with the undisputed lightweight belt as the prize. Charles Oliveira is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, as he’s been in the promotion since 2010, will have at least 35 UFC fights under his belt, and holds the record for most finishes in UFC history. For the first part of his UFC career, Oliveira was a very streaky fighter, but something clicked for him in 2018, and since then, he has been nearly unstoppable. After a loss to Paul Felder in 2017, Oliveira put together an 11 fight win streak where he only went to decision once, as he finished ten opponents, won the lightweight belt, and defended once. After a dominant decision win over Tony Ferguson in 2020, he took on former Bellator champion Michael Chandler for the vacant belt. Chandler nearly finished the fight after hurting Oliveira early, but in the end, Oliveira was able to recover and find the second round KO/TKO to win the belt. He went on to win his next two fights via submission over Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, but unfortunately for Oliveira, only the win over Poirier would count as a title defense. For his fight against Gaethje, Oliveira missed weight and was stripped of the belt as soon as the fight started. Due to the weight miss, he was also not eligible to become champion, so only Gaethje could win the belt during that bout. Since Oliveira choked Gaethje out, the belt was vacant, and in his next fight against Islam Makhachev, the title would be up for grabs. Oliveira lost that fight via round two submission, resulting in Makhachev becoming the champion. After losing, he went on to go 2-1 in his next three fights, and with Makhachev now moving up a weight class to welterweight, the belt is vacant again. In steps Ilia Topuria, who has done the same thing as Islam Makhachev. Topuria was down a weight class at featherweight, and after winning and defending the belt, he decided it was time to challenge himself at lightweight. Topuria is perfect in the UFC at 8-0 with six finishes, but he is also perfect in his entire career at 16-0 with 14 finishes. After beating Josh Emmett over five rounds via unanimous decision, Topuria was granted his chance at the featherweight belt against Alexander Volkanovski. Volkanovski had just gotten back from a short notice opportunity to become a simultaneous two division champion against Islam Makhachev, where he fell short due to getting knocked out via head kick. Whether that head kick damage was still impacting him or not, fans will never know, but Ilia Topuria was able to land a great combination that put Volkanovski out in round two. Now, as the champion, Topuria was given the chance to defend against former champion Max Holloway. Holloway had never been finished in his career, but Ilia Topuria did just that and knocked him out in round three. With two knockouts over legends under his belt already, Ilia Topuria will look to add another in Oliveira, but at his home weight class, while holding the record for most finishes in history, Oliveira will surely have something to say about that.