Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira have been speaking to one another nonstop throughout their preliminary faceoff forward of UFC 317 but it surely appeared the dialog was all enterprise between the 2 fighters assembly to crown a brand new light-weight champion.
There’s been a whole lot of respect proven between the athletes competing in the primary occasion however Topuria has been adamant that he’s going to ship an emphatic first-round end in his return to the light-weight division. In fact, Oliveira has heard all of it earlier than so he didn’t appear to let something to get him throughout the backwards and forwards change between the fighters.
Whereas it’s unclear what precisely what they mentioned to one another, Topuria and Oliveira began the faceoff with a hug and the staredown ended with the lightweights shaking fingers so clearly no actual unhealthy blood between them.
That doesn’t change the magnitude of the battle with Topuria looking for to turn out to be the newest addition to the two-division champion membership after he reigned as featherweight king earlier than giving up his belt to maneuver to 155 kilos.
As for Oliveira, the previous champion is seeking to reclaim his standing as one of the best light-weight within the sport after already holding notable wins over Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje in addition to a pair of victories over Michael Chandler.
The-co-main occasion at UFC 317 truly featured a way more stoic faceoff as champion Alexandre Pantoja got here eye-to-eye with Kai Kara-France. These two shared essentially the most intense faceoff throughout the pre-fight press convention as Pantoja appears for his fourth consecutive title protection whereas Kara-France makes an attempt to tug off the upset in his first alternative to seize UFC gold.
UFC 317 goes down Saturday night time from the T-Moble Area in Las Vegas with the primary card kicking off on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET.
