Oliveira vs. Topuria Fight Headlines UFC 317 Card After Islam Makhachev Vacates Title

Islam Makhachev has vacated his lightweight belt and will move up to the welterweight division to fight Jack Della Maddalena, Dana White announced Tuesday.

Additionally, White announced that a bout between Charles Oliveira and Ilia Topuria will headline UFC 317 for the now-vacated world lightweight championship.

Later this summer, Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev will square off for the world middleweight championship at UFC 319 in August.

Makhachev, who has a 27-1 record, claimed the vacant UFC lightweight championship in 2022 when he beat Oliveira at UFC 280. He went on to defend the belt against Alexander Volkanovski twice in February 2023 and October 2023, respectively. He defended the belt again against Dustin Poirier last year before defending it a fourth time against Renato Moicano in January.

Makhachev is the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter, according to UFC.

Della Maddalena, who has an 18-2 record, claimed the welterweight title for the first time in his career last week when he defeated Belal Muhammed via unanimous decision at UFC 315.

Oliveira will be looking for the second lightweight championship of his career. He won the vacant lightweight championship in 2021 and defended it once before being stripped of the belt in 2022 because he missed weight. He fought Makhachev for the vacant lightweight championship in 2022 but lost.

Topuria, who made his lightweight debut in 2022 but returned to featherweight later that year, won the featherweight championship in 2024 and defended the belt in October.

Du Plessis won his first UFC middleweight championship at UFC 297 in 2024 and has since defended the title against Israel Adesanya in August of 2024 and against Sean Strickland in February. Chimaev has won all 14 of his professional fights and is looking for the first middleweight championship of his career.