UFC 316 is in the books, meaning attention will soon turn to the mixed martial arts leader’s next pay-per-view offering, UFC 317 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The promotion was in Newark last week, where the Prudential Center played host to a number of intriguing matchups for its sixth numbered event of the year. Of note were headline wins for Merab Dvalishvili and Kayla Harrison, as well as important victories for Joe Pyfer, Mario Bautista and Kevin Holland.
While the aftermath of the June 7 card is currently the talk of the town, it won’t be long until focus sways to the next PPV, and from the bantamweight title picture to the lightweight and flyweight championship conversations.
At UFC 317, set for the T-Mobile Arena on June 28, a new UFC lightweight champion will be crowned when former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria faces former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant title in the main event. The title will be vacated once the two are in the Octagon, as current champion Islam Makhachev is planning to move up to welterweight to challenge Jack Della Maddalena.
Topuria himself vacated the featherweight championship earlier this year. He had won the title at UFC 298 in February 2024 and retained the belt with his finish of Max Holloway at UFC 308 before deciding he wanted to move up and capture a title in a second weight class. Oliveira defeated Michael Chandler for the then-vacant lightweight title at UFC 262 and retained it against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 before losing his title on the scales prior to facing Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. Oliveira most recently defeated Chandler in a rematch at UFC 309.
Gold will also be on the line in the co-main event, as Alexandre Pantoja defends the UFC flyweight championship against Kai Kara-France. After defeating Brandon Moreno for the title at UFC 291, Pantoja has retained the belt three times, defeating Brandon Royval at UFC 296, Steve Erceg at UFC 301 and Kai Asakura at UFC 310. Kara-France, meanwhile, has won four of his last six, finishing Erceg in about four minutes at UFC 305.
Costa, Dariush, Diniz Set The Stage For Title Headliners At UFC 317
Before Topuria, Oliveira, Pantoja and Kara-France make their way out to the Octagon for the title fights, a number of notable names will take to the Octagon looking to make the most of their position on the major UFC 317 card.
That includes former title challenger Paulo Costa, who looks to gain some positive momentum against the challenge of rising middleweight contender Roman Kopylov. Costa has lost four of his last five and has only fought four times since unsuccessfully challenging Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 253. He most recently fought at UFC 302 last year, losing to Sean Strickland. Kopylov, meanwhile, has won six of his last seven, most recently scoring a literal last-second, head-kick knockout of Chris Curtis in January.
Prior to that, Beneil Dariush looks to finally get back in the win column as he takes on recent lightweight title challenger Renato Moicano in a battle of top-10 ranked lightweights. Dariush was once on an eight-fight win streak but will come into this fight off back-to-back losses against Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan. That loss to Tsarukyan came in December 2023, marking a year-and-a-half away for Dariush. Moicano was on a four-fight win streak entering UFC 311 when he received the opportunity on just one day’s notice to challenge Makhachev for the lightweight title, though ultimately falling short.
The main card is scheduled to open with a heavyweight clash featuring Jhonata Diniz and Justin Tafa. Since coming into the UFC off of Dana White’s Contender Series, Diniz has defeated Austen Lane and Karl Williams but suffered a TKO loss to Marcin Tybura at UFC 309. After a four-fight unbeaten streak, Tafa will enter this fight off back-to-back losses against Williams and Tallison Teixeira, the latter coming four months ago at UFC 312.
Those pairings have currently gotten the nod to feature on the main card over the likes of Jack Hermansson and Vivane Araujo, as well as a flyweight clash between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape all of whom are expected to be featured players on the event’s preliminary card.
See below for the UFC 317 lineup, as it stands.
Main Card:
- Lightweight Championship: Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira
- Flyweight Championship: Alexandre Pantoja (C) vs. Kai Kara-France
- Middleweight: Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov
- Lightweight: Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano
- Heavyweight: Jhonata Diniz vs. Justin Tafa
Preliminary Card (full card and bout order TBA):
- Flyweight: Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape
- Middleweight: Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodrigues
- Women’s Strawweight: Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Cortez
