UFC 317 is this Saturday.
The upcoming UFC pay-per-view features two huge championship bouts as Ilia Topuria will face Charles Olivera for the vacant Lightweight title and Alexandre Pantoja will defend the featherweight belt against Kai Kara-France in the co-main event. UFC 317 will mark the debut of Topuria's run in the lightweight division and Pantoja's fourth featherweight title defense.
However, the entire main card had potential bangers including Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov. However, it was just confirmed by Dana White that the middleweight bout has been moved off of this Saturday’s card due to Costa's inability to compete. The one time UFC Middleweight challenger has come down with an illness, thus postponing the middleweight fight to UFV 318 on July 19th.
The nature of Costa’s illness is unclear. The 34-year-old was hoping to snap a terrible two-fight skid that’s seen him lose to former UFC Middleweight Champions Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland. This was Costa’s first fight since June 2024. Kopylov is actually coming in on a high thanks to back-to-back wins over César Almeida and Chris Curtis. Costa is Roman’s biggest challenge to date as the middleweight first joined the UFC back in 2019.
For the most part, everything else is scheduled to go on as advertised. However, this is MMA, so fight changes can still happen between now and Saturday. Below is the updated pay-per-view line-up that's scheduled to take place in New Orleans, Louisiana:
UFC 317 Main Event on ESPN+ PPV:
155 lbs.: Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira for vacant Lightweight championship
UFC 317 Main Card on ESPN+ PPV (10 p.m. ET):
125 lbs.: UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France
155 lbs.: Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano
125 lbs.: Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van
135 lbs.: Payton Talbott vs. Felipe Lima
UFC 317 Late ‘Prelims’ Under Card on ESPN/ESPN+ (8 p.m. ET):
185 lbs.: Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodrigues
145 lbs.: Hyder Amil vs. Jose Delgado
125 lbs.: Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Cortez
155 lbs.: Terrance McKinney vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
UFC 317 Early ‘Prelims’ Under Card on ESPN+ (6:30 p.m. ET):
185 lbs.: Sedriques Dumas vs. Jackson McVey
265 lbs.: Jhonata Diniz vs. Alvin Hines
170 lbs.: Niko Price vs. Jacobe Smith