UFC 317: Ilia Topuria lives up to first-round knockout promise

Historic greatness targeted; historic greatness landed.

Ilia Topuria became the 10^th fighter in UFC history to achieve a championship in two separate weight classes Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in the main event of UFC 317, with a perfect one-two punch combination. Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira met Topuria in the middle of the octagon midway through the first round and didn’t stay conscious to tell the tale.

Topuria won the vacant lightweight belt via knockout at 2:27 of the first round.

“I represent the next generation of mixed martial arts,” Topuria said in his post-fight interview in the octagon. “I have reached another level in the evolution.”

The headlining affairs of the promotion’s annual International Fight Week delivered in grand fashion. Before Topuria clocked the fan-favorite Oliveira, flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja retained his title by smothering challenger Kai Kara-France.

Pantoja used his trademark rear-naked choke to force a tapout from Kara-France at 1:55 of the third round.   

“A lot of guys train for that but I’m too evolved,” Pantoja said. “I’m still getting better.”

The UFC entered International Fight Week mired in somewhat of a rut. Fans had griped the last few weeks about the two preceding events, which largely lacked action and featured the vast majority of fights going to the scorecards.

UFC 317 should have satisfied the masses more; it was jam-packed full of memorable moments.

After a finish-fueled preliminary card — full results are available at the bottom of the page — the length of fights extended for the start of the main card but the quality of performances didn’t dip.

The bantamweight opener between Felipe Lima and Payton Talbott was billed as a matchup between fighters no one wants to face.

It was quickly evident why as both up-and-coming prospects had their moments in a varied 15-minute war. Lima out-pressured Talbott in the first round, but the latter turned it around in the last 10 minutes.

The Las Vegas-born Talbott outstruck and outgrappled Lima to earn a unanimous-decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) that he said, for the first time, made him feel like a true fighter. Talbott said the win was so meaningful because it was a bounce-back from the first loss of his career, what was perhaps the biggest upset of the year in January when he got dominated by journeyman Roni Barcelos.

Another battle-tested veteran followed Talbott as Beneil Dariush moved into second-place all-time with a 17^th victory at lightweight by beating Renato Moicano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Much like Talbott against Lima, Dariush lost the first round. Moicano dropped him with a punching combination but Dariush was able to weaponize his grappling the rest of the way.

The 36-year-old was considering retirement before the bout, but the win appeared to help him change his mind.

“This is a desire God has put into me and I’m not going anywhere,” Dariush said while still in the octagon.”

Dariush and Talbott might still be far removed from a title, but a new contender might have been born in the featured flyweight fight. Joshua Van, a 23-year-old fighting out of Houston, picked up a fifth consecutive victory and undoubtedly the most notable of his career —  a unanimous-decision nod (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)  over veteran Brandon Royval.

Van and Royval engaged in a slugfest that drew standing ovations at both the end of the second and third rounds. Right as the crowd got out of their seats in the third, Van dropped Royval with a right hand to all but secure the win.

“I knew I was in for a war,” Van said. “I wanted to get the finish but I ran out of time.”

Van got the next thing he wanted — a faceoff with Pantoja after the champion’s title defense and a shot against him at a to-be-determined event.

The crowd exploded in cheers when the cameras in the arena showed Van sitting cageside in between rounds of the co-main event.

“He’s a great champion,” Van said before the customary staredown photo. “But he hasn’t fought Joshua Van yet.”

Pantoja smirked and patted Van on the back.

“He’s a humble guy,” Pantoja said. “He’s going to fight for the title next.”

Topuria more or less booked his next fight while in the cage too, inviting Irish rival Paddy Pimblett in for their own staredown. The new lightweight champion ended up pushing the incoming challenger away after they exchanged words.

“That was a nice knockout, I’ll give you that,” Pimblett said. “But you will never knock me out. I will finish you.”

Pantoja vs. Van and Topuria vs. Pimblett immediately have a lot to live up to. The UFC 317 headliners gave the sold-out crowd the violence it was starved for.  

Read below for full results from the preliminary card.

Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues knocked Jack Hermansson out cold with one punch late in the first round of their middleweight bout. Rodrigues connected with a left hook that sent Hermansson to the canvas for one of the knockouts of the year.

Twenty-six seconds was all up-and-coming featherweight Jose Delgado needed to dispatch Hyder Amil in what was supposed to be one of the closest fights of the night. Delgado landed a combination of strikes to knock out Amil in one of their first exchanges.

Tracy Cortez defeated Viviane Araujo via unanimous decision, winning every round on every scorecard in the women’s flyweight bout. Araujo took Cortez down and had her in a compromising position early but gassed out and slowed significantly from there. Cortez said it was all part of the game plan coming in.

All seven of lightweight Terrence McKinney’s UFC victories have come in the first round. Tonight’s was his first in nearly three years to come by submission as McKinney choked out Viacheslav Borshchev with a guillotine 55 seconds into their fight.  

Undefeated welterweight prospect Jacobe Smith went off as the largest favorite in UFC history, at odds of -2500 (i.e. risking $2,500 to win $100) against veteran Niko Price. Smith ultimately lived up to the price tag, submitting Price at 4:03 of the second round via rear-naked choke.  

Jhonata Diniz did enough early to beat Alvin Hines in what turned into a heavyweight boxing match, claiming a unanimous-decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) by winning each of the first two rounds on every judges’ scorecard.