UFC CEO Dana White has promised to kick off the promotion’s new deal with Paramount in a big way. White now says the debut card in the new deal, which begins in January, could be anchored by lightweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Speaking with reporters after Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, White said the matchmaking process for the Paramount debut began “literally today.”
“Matchmaking was today, and we started working on the first Paramount card today,” White continued.
Many of the biggest potential stars the UFC could book, such as Jon Jones and Conor McGregor, have focused their pitches for their next fight on the planned UFC card at the White House in June. Not that a fighter couldn’t fight on both the Paramount debut and again nearly half a year later at the White House, but Jones and McGregor are unique stars whose schedules have not operated in the same way as “normal” fighters for many years. Not to mention that McGregor has not fought since 2021 and is serving a suspension for violating the UFC’s anti-doping policy that does not end until March, taking him completely off the table.
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Topuria (17-0) is one star who is available and not currently scheduled for a fight.
Topuria has stormed through his opponents, winning the featherweight championship with a knockout of Alexander Volkanovski in February 2024 and defending the belt the following October by knocking out Max Holloway. Seeking further glory, Topuria vacated his title to jump to lightweight, where he scored his third consecutive knockout in a title fight, beating Charles Oliveira to capture the vacant championship at 155 pounds.
When asked about the idea of Topuria headlining the Paramount debut, White said, “It’s a possibility.”
White also spoke about the end of the promotion’s deal with ESPN, promising to continue delivering the best product he can as the deal winds through its final months.
“We’re always going to try to put on the best cards that we can,” White said. “We’ve had a great relationship with ESPN, and we were talking earlier, everybody is already starting to feel it. There’s a lot of relationships between the ESPN team that comes to all the fights and works and the UFC team, and everybody is starting to feel it coming to the end here. They’ve been great to us, and they’ve been great to the sport. We want to put on a badass last card for them.”
