UFC 317 is in the books, and Ilia Topuria is the new lightweight champion.
On Saturday in Las Vegas, Topuria moved up to the 155-pound division with great success, knocking out Charles Oliveira in the first round to become just the 10th two-division champion in UFC history. That makes three champions in a row for Topuria, who is on a legendary run; but just how legendary is it?
We gathered the MMA Fighting brain trust to discuss where this run from Topuria ranks, Alexandre Pantoja’s fourth title defense and continued ascendance, and the rest of the big topics coming out of UFC 317.
1. What is your blurb review of UFC 317?
Martin: Exactly what the UFC needed.
If you look at the pay-per-view results thus far in 2025, not much great has happened, especially when it comes to building stars for the promotion. Merab Dvalishvili and Jack Della Maddalena provided some excitement, but from top to bottom, UFC 317 delivered massively like no other card this year.
Bravo.
Lee: It looked shaky on paper, but UFC 317 proved to be a wonderfully entertaining card with longstanding ramifications for the lightweight and flyweight divisions. To steal a thought from the great Dan Tom, maybe stacking your card with elite fighters 155 pounds and under is good?
Heck: Best card of 2025, and it’s not close. We’ll be talking about this one for quite some time, and more than one year-end award will likely come down to something that happened on Saturday.
Meshew: Thrilling. Riveting. Impressive. Darn good fun.
2. Is Ilia Topuria on the most impressive run we’ve ever seen?
Meshew: In terms of just a three-fight run, this is certainly up there. By my estimation, Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway are two of the 10 greatest fighters of all time. Charles Oliveira is in the top 25. That means Topuria has now knocked out three all-time greats, only slightly past their primes, in three fights, including being the first man to ever KO Holloway. There may be other runs as impressive, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone do something more impressive.
Martin: He’s right there just given the level of competition he’s faced and the way Topuria has just obliterated everybody.
His recent three-fight run has included knockouts over two of the three greatest featherweights of all time in Volkanovski and Holloway. Then he goes out and demolishes Oliveira, who hadn’t been knocked out in nearly six years! That’s incredibly impressive.
The only person challenging Topuria is Jon Jones after he vanquished Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida, and Rashad Evans in consecutive fights. Beating up four former champions in a row is pretty unreal.
Lee: I’m giving it to him.
Every time I’ve had to write about Topuria, I almost always like to recap the run he’s on, and it never stops sounding insane, no matter how many times I type it: The only fighter to hold a win over Volkanovski at 145 pounds. The only fighter ever to knock out Holloway.
And now you add a punch-out of top 10 all-time lightweight Oliveira, in under half a round, no less?
It’s the best run ever.
Heck: Boy, it’s getting tough to argue against it. Topuria is a rare breed in this sport. Of course, many fighters have come along who had great runs, or had limitless potential, high ceilings, talent, the list goes on and on. But very few in the sport’s history can be defined as “special,” and Topuria is on that list.
I still believe Jones’ run following the DQ loss to Matt Hamill, to winning the light heavyweight title, through the first Alexander Gustafsson fight is in the top spot, but Topuria has closed the gap in a big way. I think “El Matador” is No. 2 right now, and he’s not even close to being done. I’m confident Jones won’t hold this one much longer.
3. How good is Alexandre Pantoja?
Heck: A stark reminder that while the UFC doesn’t have stars, they have some really, really good fighters on their roster.
The fact that Alexandre Pantoja is ranked No. 5 on my current pound-for-pound list tells you what kind of talent is there right now – from Islam Makhachev, to Topuria, Merab Dvalishvili, Dricus du Plessis, Pantoja, Tom Aspinall, and the list goes on. Fans need to cherish this time where the pound-for-pound debate has five or six fighters you could make a case for, and Pantoja is certainly part of this discussion.
Pantoja is the second-greatest flyweight of all-time, and might be the sport’s best fighter right now. How good is he? Really damn good!
Meshew: So much better than people give him credit for. I know that in the aftermath of UFC 317, people will argue that Topuria is the best fighter on the planet – and they might be right – but I’m coming around to the idea that it’s actually Pantoja.
Pantoja has beaten eight consecutive ranked opponents, finished four of them, and if we go back to The Ultimate Fighter 24, has 11 total wins over ranked opponents. He’s beaten the No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, No. 6, No. 7, No. 9, and No. 14-ranked flyweights. Pantoja firmly cleaned out his division in a way no other active champion has, and now he’s about to start on the next generation.
On top of that, Pantoja on Saturday became just the 21st champion in UFC history with four-plus title defenses, and only the second fighter to break the 35-plus curse, after Volkanovski’s (somewhat asterisked) win earlier this year. It’s time we put some respect on Pants’ name.
Martin: He’s amazing, but I’m not sure UFC 317 proved anything about Pantoja that we didn’t already know.
Truth be told, Kai Kara-France really had no business being in there with him off his one-fight win streak, and he’s now 1-3 in his past four fights. That doesn’t exactly scream top competition. That’s certainly not Pantoja’s fault because he already ran roughshod over the best fighters available to him at 125 pounds.
For all the hopes and dreams pinned on Muhammad Mokaev to develop into a top flyweight, it’s ultimately going to be Joshua Van providing new blood and a fresh challenge for Pantoja when they finally clash.
Lee: Good enough that I believe he’d give prime Demetrious Johnson a run for his money. Yeah, I said it.
Pantoja is not going to hang around long to surpass Johnson’s record run at the top of the flyweight division, but when you stack up their quality of competition, Pantoja is right up there with the all-time greats. Would Johnson have racked up nearly a dozen title defenses if there was a Brandon Moreno or Brandon Royval or Manel Kape in the mix? Probably, but those are the standouts of what I consider to be a stronger, healthier roster than what Johnson had to navigate (though I’ll always argue much of Johnson’s opposition is underrated).
Beyond that, Pantoja is just incredibly fun to watch as he always fights his fight, no matter what. That will come back to bite him someday, but for now, let’s all enjoy the show.
4. Who was the biggest loser at UFC 317?
Lee: It sounds weird to call a guy who just improved to 11-0 a “loser,” but Jacobe Smith… what was that, man?
I enjoy a good troll as much as anyone, and I’ll admit, the third time Smith nonsensically shouted “JOE ROGAN” at the top of his lungs gave me a chuckle. But the bit dragged on for too long, he didn’t say anything of consequence with his mic time, and the Las Vegas crowd was not matching his energy.
Smith went from being hyped as the biggest betting favorite in UFC history to some rambling weirdo in the course of two minutes. Back to the drawing board.
Heck: I’m going with Hokey Pokey Herb Dean, because, ladies and gentlemen, this guy continues to regress at his job, and is really going to get somebody hurt, or even worse.
Dean was the referee for the featured prelim between Jack Hermansson and Gregory Rodrigues. “Robocop” knocked Hermansson to another planet with a massive punch, with Hermansson’s head slamming the canvas with full force, and his entire body stiffening up. Dean ran and seemingly yelled at Rodrigues to stop, but he didn’t do anything more, which led to Rodrigues landing a brutal, and absolutely unnecessary follow-up shot. Let me be clear: Rodrigues gets ZERO blame for this. It’s 100 percent on Dean for, once again, not stepping in with confidence to make a call.
Hermansson was unconscious, lying on the mat for what seemed like an eternity. Maybe if Dean got in quick enough, the follow-up shot wouldn’t have landed, and Hermansson would’ve still been out as long as he was. Maybe that’s the case. But the fact that we won’t know the answer to that drives me insane. I’ve been calling Dean “Hokey Pokey Herb” for almost five years now, and it’s only getting worse.
Meshew: Charles Oliveira. Don’t get me wrong, “do Bronx” is already a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but that loss effectively ended his title aspirations, and the manner of the loss may have had some ramifications on his career. Oliveira is 35 years old and just suffered one of the most brutal losses of his career. I don’t know how he’ll come back after this, but however it is, it won’t be for long, and it will never be at these highs again.
Martin: Everybody in the lightweight division not named Paddy Pimblett.
Topuria being crowned as champion injected some serious excitement into the historically best division in the sport, and there were a couple of legitimate challenges awaiting him from Arman Tsarukyan and Justin Gaethje. But neither of those guys are going to get the next title shot thanks to the very real rivalry between Topuria and Pimblett.
The UFC would be INSANE not to book that fight next with all the heat generated by Topuria and Pimblett, which means Gaethje is either going to have to fight again or potentially follow through on his promise to retire. Tsarukyan is the real loser in all this because weighing in as the backup for UFC 317 assured him of nothing, and now he’s absolutely sitting behind Pimblett in the hierarchy of the most likely challengers to Topuria’s reign.
5. Outside of the two title fights, who stole the show at UFC 317?
Martin: It’s the lowest hanging fruit, but it’s the correct answer – Joshua Van.
What an unbelievable story with this dude fighting and beating Bruno Silva a few weeks ago – at UFC 316, apparently breaking his toe but not blinking whatsoever when the UFC came calling with an offer to face Brandon Royval at UFC 317. Just accepting the opportunity already made Van a gangster, but the fact he went in there and put on a potential Fight of the Year while beating Royval is ridiculous.
At 23, Van now has the chance to become one of the youngest champions in UFC history -assuming everything works out and he fights Pantoja next – and his story is still far from written. In fact, we might just be witnessing the first chapter in Van’s career.
Lee: Terrance McKinney, you are a beast, as always.
There are few guarantees in combat sports, but one is that a McKinney fight is not going past the midway point of the second round and very, very likely not even making it past the first round. Heck, there’s a good chance, the fight doesn’t make it to the first minute.
“T. Wrecks” was up to his usual shenanigans Saturday, taking Viacheslav Borshchev down early and immediately hunting for chokes. Borshchev tapped out in less than 60 seconds.
I don’t know nor do I care if McKinney ever puts together a long-enough win streak to fight for a title. What I do know is this man needs to have 50 UFC fights before it’s all said and done… uh, health permitting.
Heck: It’s obviously Royval and Van, but I’m going to shine some light on the UFC Baku of UFC 317 – Jose Miguel Delgado.
Delgado went out on Saturday night against a game and dangerous guy in Hyder Amil and threw himself into the freaking fire. Twenty-six seconds later, the fight was over, Delgado had the biggest win of his career, and not a soul remembers it happened.
No bonus, no mentions, not even a top five to seven talking point with everything that happened. If Delgado is Khalil Rountree, UFC 317 is Jon Jones retiring. Damn good performance and finish that got lost in the shuffle. But I didn’t forget you, Jose.
Meshew: How quickly we forget in this sport. I’m old enough to remember when Payton Talbott was one of the best prospects in the entire sport (six months ago), and when, just last week, people were counting him out and saying this was a bad, poorly planned matchup. After all, Lima was now the preferred prospect, and Talbott was about to be sacrificed.
Guess again.
Talbott looked like you expect an elite prospect coming off a loss to look, like a man who spent his time learning from the loss and improving. Talbott’s defensive wrestling was much sharper, his grappling in transition was slick and polished, and his striking was fundamentally sound and effective. Not only all that, but he also clearly had a good game plan that he performed well.
A lot of impressive stuff happened on Saturday, so Talbott won’t make headlines, but he also reminded the world he’s the future of the bantamweight division, and we shouldn’t give up on people that stumble so soon.
Poll
Is Ilia Topuria on the greatest run ever in MMA?
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