Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira Set For Vacant Title At UFC 317

Ilia Topuria of Alicante, Spain (16-0), will move up to lightweight and get an instant title shot.

UFC CEO Dana White announced Tuesday on an Instagram Live that Topuria will fight Charles Oliveira of Sao Paulo, Brazil (35-10, 1 NC) for the vacant lightweight title at the main event of UFC 317 on June 28. The UFC 317 fight card will be featured on International Fight Week.

Former champ, Islam Makhachev of Dagestan, Russia (27-1), will vacate the championship, as he is moving up to welterweight to face newly crowned champion Jack Della Maddalena of Perth, Western Australia (18-2).

Ilia Topuria has been expected to move up to welterweight for months, but it was pure speculation. The 28-year-old vacated his featherweight championship this past February.

Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira For Lightweight Gold

After going 6-0 inside the Octagon, Topuria finally earned a title shot against Alexander Volkanovski of New South Wales, Australia (27-4). At UFC 298, the Spaniard finished the fight in the second round via technical knockout to have the title wrapped around his waist. He followed up that performance with a third-round technical knockout victory over Max Holloway of Waianae, Hawaii (26-8) at UFC 308 in October 2024.

Topuria took to social media to announce his dreams had come true.

On June 28, another dream will come true. I’ll be the champion of the lightweight division. Charles, my apologies in advance… I’m just fighting for my dreams. It’s unfortunate that Makhachev ran away. 17-0 🌹 pic.twitter.com/YSutHz4U2h

— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) May 13, 2025

“On June 28, another dream will come true,” Ilia Topuria stated. “I’ll be the champion of the lightweight division. Charles, my apologies in advance… I’m just fighting for my dreams. It’s unfortunate that Makhachev ran away. 17-0.”

Oliveira is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Michael Chandler of Las Vegas, Nevada (23-10) at UFC 309, earning him ‘Fight of the Night’ honors.

This will not be the first time ‘do Bronx’ fights for the vacant championship. At UFC 262 in 2021, Oliveira defeated Chandler after the former champion Khabib Nurmagomedov of Dagestan, Russia (29-0) vacated his championship and retired. The 35-year-old defended that title against Dustin Poirier of Coconut Creek, Florida (30-9, 1 NC).

He was unfortunately stripped of the title before submitting Justin Gaethje of Greeley, Colorado (26-5) in the very first round of their UFC 274 fight.

The current UFC 317 fight card, which goes down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada can be seen below.

Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira

Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France

Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov

Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano

Jhonata Diniz vs. Justin Tafa

Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape

Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodrigues

Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Cortez