UFC 317: Topuria vs Oliveira start time, schedule, fight card, how to watch and latest odds

The vacant UFC men’s lightweight title is on the line in Saturday night’s enormous main event in Las Vegas, which hosts one of the biggest bouts of the year.

Topuria, unbeaten at 16-0, including eight successive wins in the UFC, is hoping to become only the promotion’s 10th-ever two-weight champion after making the surprise decision to vacate his 145-pound featherweight title earlier this year.

He previously stunned and knocked out the great Alexander Volkanovski – who took back the belt after beating Diego Lopes at UFC 314 – before providing a successful first defence with a stoppage of Max Holloway at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi in October.

He has now gone up to the 155-pound division, where he will aim to clinch a belt that has been vacant since the formidable Islam Makhachev relinquished it last month for a move up to welterweight and an attempt at his own two-weight champion status, pursuing a shot at new 170-pound champion Jack Della Maddalena, who outpointed Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in Montreal in May.

His first challenge to regain that lost gold saw him submitted by Makhachev in 2022, since when he has stopped Beneil Dariush before being beaten via split decision by Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 and then surviving a late rally from Chandler to win their rematch on his last outing at UFC 309 in New York in November.

Tsarukyan was set to challenge Makhachev for the lightweight title in January, only to suffer an injury and be replaced by Renato Moicano, who lost by submission. Tsarukyan is the back-up fighter for this main event.