Ilia Topuria was true to his word as he delivered a brutal first-round stoppage of Charles Oliveira to become the new UFC men’s lightweight champion.
The much-anticipated main event of UFC 317 in Las Vegas on Saturday night lasted barely two-and-a-half minutes as ‘El Matador’ provided another shuddering reminder of his remarkable power, knocking an already bloodied Oliveira out cold with a devastating right hand, left hook combination before forcing the referee to step in after more heavy blows administered on the ground.
The confident Topuria had promised that the fight at T-Mobile Arena would not go beyond the opening round and so it proved as he successfully claimed the 155-pound belt vacated by Islam Makhachev last month following the pound-for-pound king’s move to welterweight, becoming only the 10th fighter in UFC history to win titles in two different weight classes.
Topuria had previously knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight championship, later becoming the first man to stop Max Holloway in his only defence before relinquishing it and moving back up to lightweight, where had had previously fought just once before in the UFC, citing his struggles to keep making the 145-pound limit.
Topuria now appears to be on a collision course with Liverpool’s Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett, who wants a title shot after his career-best win over Michael Chandler at UFC 314 in Miami in April, with the two men having clashed in the octagon after the former’s latest statement victory over Oliveira.
Topuria - currently ranked at No3 on the UFC’s pound-for-pound list behind only Makhachev and dominant bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili - has achieved double champion status in the UFC in just nine fights, remaining undefeated in his MMA career as a whole at 17-0 with 15 finishes - seven by knockout and eight by submission.
For Oliveira, it was a second failed attempt to reclaim the title that was controversially stripped from him on the scales after he came in marginally over the weight for his second scheduled defence against Justin Gaethje in 2022, having been submitted by Makhachev later that year.
The Brazilian, who was the No2-ranked lightweight contender, has now lost three of his last five fights, having also been bested by Arman Tsarukyan in between wins over Beneil Dariush and Chandler.
In the co-main event of the night, Alexandre Pantoja provided a successful fourth defence of his UFC men’s flyweight title with a dominant performance against former Ultimate Fighter rival Kai Kara-France, who was submitted by rear-naked choke in the third round.
Pantoja will next defend his belt against Joshua Van, who produced a sublime performance in a pulsating contest to outpoint No1 contender Brandon Royval, despite taking the bout at late notice and having fought once already this month.
Dariush bounced back from defeats by Oliveira and Tsarukyan with a vital points win over Renato Moicano, who stepped in late for the injured Tsarukyan to unsuccessfully challenge Makhachev for the lightweight title in January.
The main card opened with American bantamweight Payton Talbott bouncing back from his lone career loss to Raoni Barcelos by deservedly defeating Felipe Lima.
On an explosive prelim bill, Jack Hermansson was knocked out in the first round against fellow middleweight veteran Gregory Rodrigues, while featherweight Jose Miguel Delgado did likewise to Hyder Amil.
Tracy Cortez earned an impressive decision victory over Viviane Araujo in the women’s flyweight division, after Terrance McKinney had quickly submitted lightweight rival Viacheslav Borshchev by guillotine choke.
Ascending welterweight talent Jacobe Smith submitted Niko Price by rear-naked choke after the night opened with a points win for heavyweight Jhonata Diniz against UFC debutant Alvin Hines.
