Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira were talking to each other nonstop during their initial faceoff ahead of UFC 317 but it appeared the conversation was all business between the two fighters meeting to crown a new lightweight champion.
There’s been a lot of respect shown between the athletes competing in the main event but Topuria has been adamant that he’s going to deliver an emphatic first-round finish in his return to the lightweight division. Of course, Oliveira has heard it all before so he didn’t seem to let anything to get him during the back and forth exchange between the fighters.
While it’s unclear what exactly what they said to each other, Topuria and Oliveira started the faceoff with a hug and the staredown ended with the lightweights shaking hands so clearly no real bad blood between them.
That doesn’t change the magnitude of the fight with Topuria seeking to become the latest addition to the two-division champion club after he reigned as featherweight king before giving up his belt to move to 155 pounds.
As for Oliveira, the former champion is looking to reclaim his status as the best lightweight in the sport after already holding notable wins over Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje as well as a pair of victories over Michael Chandler.
The-co-main event at UFC 317 actually featured a much more stoic faceoff as champion Alexandre Pantoja came eye-to-eye with Kai Kara-France. These two shared the most intense faceoff during the pre-fight press conference as Pantoja looks for his fourth consecutive title defense while Kara-France attempts to pull off the upset in his first opportunity to capture UFC gold.
UFC 317 goes down Saturday night from the T-Moble Arena in Las Vegas with the main card kicking off on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET.
