Fans go wild as Ilia Topuria’s next opponent is named in UFC Vegas 105 broadcast ‘mistake’

‘La Leyenda’ has since claimed that he was promised an immediate shot at the division’s champion, Islam Makhachev, who is widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA today.

However, there had been no official Ilia Topuria update from the powers at be.

Ilia Topuria’s next opponent confirmed?

Before Lerone Murphy was booed out of the Octagon after his main event win over Josh Emmett at UFC Vegas 105, the promotion’s Spanish broadcaster made an announcement about Topuria’s next fight.

It read: “Ilia Topuria moves up in weight class and faces Charles Oliveira. The Spaniard will make his lightweight debut.”

An image of the announcement quickly went viral as excited fans reacted to the news.

However, it was soon shut down as a ‘mistake’ by the UFC via MMA journalist Alex Behunin.

“I was told by the promotion this is NOT true and was a mistake,” he tweeted alongside the screenshot.

Fans react to Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira ‘leak’

Topuria and Oliveira have been trading insults through social media in recent weeks.

Most recently, Topuria poked fun at the former lightweight champion for losing to Cub Swanson.

It’s certainly a matchup that makes sense. So, despite a respected journalist insisting the fight isn’t happening, MMA fans are still getting excited about watching Topuria and Oliveira throw down in a few months time.

“Ilia by sub,” one fan predicted. While another asked: “You’ve got to genuinely wonder how they make these mistakes?”

“Seems like an accidental announcement rather than just flat out fake news lol,” a third person added.

“That’s a very big and bold mistake that would be hard to just accidentally release,” someone else insisted.

“Was meant to be posted next weekend. Once the belt is officially vacant. They’ll announce this fight,” a fifth X user theorized.

“Wrong info,” Behunin added, doubling down on his original post.