UFC International Fight Week usually brings alongside it a card with a highly-anticipated championship showdown, and that's what we got with this year's edition, UFC 317.
The main event saw the vacant UFC lightweight championship on the line as Ilia Topuria took on Charles Oliveira. Topuria won the featherweight title at UFC 298 last year and defended it at UFC 308 against Max Holloway, but he chose to vacate the title in order to move up to 155. Oliveira, meanwhile, initially won the lightweight title at UFC 262 and made one successful defense against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269.
Gold was also on the line in the co-main event, as UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja put the belt on the line against Kai Kara-France. Pantoja won the strap originally at UFC 290, defeating Brandon Moreno, and he retained the belt against Brandon Royval at UFC 296, Steve Erceg at UFC 301 and Kai Asakura at UFC 310. Kara-France came into this title shot off a highlight knockout of Erceg at UFC 305.
Who delivered in Las Vegas? Who fell flat? Let's look back at the night of action together with the hits and misses of UFC 317!
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The preliminary card set the tone for the evening early, as there were several fighters who put up strong performances to start the card off with a bang.
Terrance McKinney did such to kick off the televised portion of the prelims, quickly locking Viacheslav Borshchev in a guillotine choke and submitting him in just 55 seconds. Not to be outdone, Jose Miguel Delgado landed a one-two on Hyder Amil, followed by a devastating knee that dropped and finished him.
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Jacobe Smith, the heaviest odds favorite for a fight in UFC history, put away Niko Price, while Jhonata Diniz scored a decision win over Alvin Hines in the evening's lone heavyweight bout.
Tracy Cortez got a key victory over Viviane Araujo that should elevate her into the top-10 of the women's flyweight rankings.
And then came the final prelim fight of the evening...
In one of the most devastating knockouts the UFC has ever seen, Gregory Rodrigues landed a left hook that dropped Jack Hermansson to the mat, out cold. Hermansson was out for several minutes, bringing back memories in this writer to when Alistair Overeem was knocked out by Francis Ngannou at UFC 217.
It ended up being one of the top moments of the evening, and social media immediately blew up the moment the finish happened.
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"Robocop" has been known for his finishes, scoring knockouts now in 11 of his 17 victories in professional MMA. He's been a consistent presence in the middleweight division and has now won four of his last five fights. This win allows him to rebound from a loss he suffered against former title challenger Jared Cannonier in February.
This was the kind of finish that says we shouldn't be looking away from "Robocop" out of receiving notable opportunities, and a fight against a top-15 contender at 185 should be next for him.
Having said all that...
The left hand was not the last shot of the fight. A couple of seconds after landing the left, Rodrigues followed up with a hammerfist to the face before referee Herb Dean could step in to officially stop the fight.
It was a punch that was not necessary, as Hermansson was out the minute the back of his head landed on the mat. And while one media member felt it brought back memories to when Dan Henderson landed such a follow-up shot on Michael Bisping at UFC 100, the follow-up shot became a huge contention point on social media.
In fact, plenty of people on social media said they lost respect for the moment -- and Rodrigues -- because of the "unnecessary" shot.
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Where does the blame lay? Some say it falls on Rodrigues, as the fighter should have been able to tell Hermansson was out cold -- especially given that the follow-up came seconds after the shot, not necessarily right away.
When asked about the moment in a post-fight press conference, Rodrigues implied that he was only fighting until the referee told him to stop. And in his defense, that is something fighters are told to do.
And in his defense, unfortunately, this is not the first time we've seen a controversial finish involving compromised fighter safety and Herb Dean. Joe Rogan pointed out on commentary that Dean was out of position; however, there is a thing called using your voice. Imagine Dean has projected his voice and yelled "Stop!" At the very least, it would have cleared him from potential fault in this mess.
Fortunately, Hermansson was okay. Fortunately, "Robocop" still has his career-defining moment that will get him another big opportunity down the line. But this controversy isn't going to go away for a while as the MMA world debates who is more at fault and we have another concern about the responsibilities of fighters and referees when it comes to protecting the athletes.
At UFC 311 in January, plenty expected Payton Talbott to make easy work of Raoni Barcelos and continue the strong start to his Octagon career. But everyone was shocked when Talbott was completely worked over in that fight en route to a dominating decision loss.
At UFC 317, Talbott righted his personal ship by scoring a statement decision win over Felipe Lima to kick off the main card action.
Talbott looked completely improved in all aspects of his game. Talbott stuffed multiple takedown attempts from Lima and was able to show great strides in his wrestling, adding in some pretty strong ground-and-pound while he had top control at points. Lima had success with his hands but continued to push, and fail, with his takedown efforts.
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The loss in January must have done something for Talbott, as he looked better than he did before in this outing. Hopefully he continues to look better in his next matchup.
For a bout between two notable names at lightweight, things could have gone better for both men, as Beneil Dariush defeated Renato Moicano.
Moicano seemed to control things early on, going from getting his leg damaged by Dariush's low kicks, to marking him up with his hands and dropping Dariush with a clean right.
But Dariush came out aggressive in the second, taking control of strong wrestling and working him over with ground pressure and strikes from the top position. Dariush employed this focused over the course of the second and third round, draining Moicano as Dariush cruised to a decision victory.
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For Moicano, this is pretty unfortunate. After taking a title fight opportunity on just one day's notice, he now has back-to-back losses after losing to Dariush. His next fight will probably come against a lower-ranked or unranked lightweight name, and a loss there could drop him out of the rankings completely.
For Dariush, there's no question he should feel good about this win. It rebounds him from a pair of losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan and shows he's still a name in a crowded lightweight contender scene. Considering the trouble he was in, however, Dariush didn't demonstrate enough to be considered a serious threat to the new champion, however. Against someone like a Max Holloway, Mateusz Gamrot, or Dan Hooker, for instance, Dariush could find himself in some deep trouble.
Though he wasn't competing in one of the evening's title fights, Joshua Van should be considered the Fighter of the Month for June 2025. After putting on a beating of Bruno Silva at UFC 316, Van, days later, agreed to step in on short notice in just a few weeks' time to take on No. 1 ranked flyweight contender and former title challenger Brandon Royval.
The result was one of the greatest performances displayed in one of the most entertaining, exciting wars the UFC Octagon has ever witnessed -- let alone within the flyweight division.
Royval looked to put the pressure on Van early, throwing a lot in volume to try and keep Van at bay. But while Royval had the quantity, Van had the quality, landing effectively whenever he did throw. Then, Van picked up his intensity in the second round, and things turned into a true bloody slugfest, with both fighters having their moments throughout the second and third rounds.
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With the fight potentially falling either way in its closing seconds, and both fighters putting on personal bests for striking, Van dropped Royval, though he was unable to score the finish before the horn. Van earned the decision, and the two eared the Fight of the Night bonus (even Royval got his win bonus).
Just weeks ago, Joshua Van was on the lower end of the flyweight ranks as he continued to work his way up. Now, not only did he put on a superhero effort to take a fight on short notice and get involved in a war, he won that war and will now be next in line to challenge for the flyweight title.
Alexandre Pantoja already looked like an all-star fighter at International Fight Week a couple of years ago when he dethroned Brandon Moreno to win the UFC flyweight championship. But the man continues to get better with each fight, and that continued as he defeated Kai Kara-France in the co-main event of UFC 317 to retain the championship.
It wasn't even a close fight, as Pantoja scored a takedown in the opening minute and didn't let up, controlling KKF for over four of the round's five minutes, at one point threatening a choke. Pantoja continued to control the fight's pace, scoring another pair of takedowns before locking up a rear-naked choke in the third round to score the submission.
Pantoja has now defended the flyweight title on four occasions. And he has continued to make strides while making defenses, and that has been notably on display in consecutive title defenses now (see his defense against Kai Asakura from UFC 310 in December as well).
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Pantoja will now be taking on Joshua Van next. This should be an exciting showdown, and a win should further the argument that Pantoja is one of the UFC's best champions -- and perhaps should have a much higher spot in the men's pound-for-pound rankings (if he shouldn't already).
A 9-0 record in the UFC now, with seven of those victories coming via a finish. An undefeated fighter. Jaw-dropping wins over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway to win and retain, respectively, the UFC featherweight championship.
And now, more history for Ilia Topuria, as he becomes the first undefeated fighter, and 10th UFC fighter overall, to win a UFC title in a second weight division. And he did so in more highlight fashion.
Topuria and Charles Oliveira both land strong strikes early before Oliveira attempted to take control with his expert-level grappling. Topuria, however, countered a takedown attempt and ended up on top. Oliveira tried to threaten a leg lock, but Topuria got out of it. Then, on the feet, Topuria landed a devastating one-two that dropped Oliveira out cold -- becoming the first fighter since Cub Swanson all the way back in 2012 to score a first-round knockout of "Do Bronx."
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With Spain and Georgia both behind him, and him continuing to make history after history, moment after moment, the world is Ilia Topuria's oyster.
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