UFC seemingly leaks Ilia Topuria's next fight during live broadcast

As uncertainty surrounding the title shot overshadowed Ilia Topuria's bold move to the lightweight division, a recent broadcast error seemingly leaked information about his next fight.

During the Spanish-language broadcast of UFC Vegas 105, the news ticker flashed on the screen, announcing that Topuria would be fighting Charles Oliveira next:

"Ilia Topuria moves up a weight class and faces Charles Oliveira. The Spaniard will make his Lightweight debut." [Translated from Spanish via Google Translate]

Although the ticker tape referred to this as Topuria's lightweight debut, it is important to note that the Spaniard has previously competed in the division, defeating Jai Herbert by a second-round knockout at UFC on ESPN+ 62 in March 2022.

MMA journalist Alex Behunin shared the screenshot on his personal X account, noting that the promotion informed him it was an error and that no such fight is currently in the works. He wrote:

"I was told by the promotion this is NOT true and was a mistake."

Check out Alex Behunin's post below:

After securing the first defense of his featherweight title at UFC 308 in October 2024, Topuria recently vacated it to make a permanent move up to lightweight. He has claimed that the promotion had promised him an immediate title shot, but recent reports indicated that champion Islam Makhachev has refused to give the 28-year-old that opportunity.

Topuria has been embroiled in an online rivalry with former champion Charles Oliveira and has criticized his comments regarding a potential fight. Meanwhile, some experts have also suggested that the Spaniard could fight old rival Paddy Pimblett to settle the four-year-old rivalry.

Recently, former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo stirred the pot by claiming that Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev's teammate and coach, may have played a role in stopping Makhachev vs. Topuria from happening.

According to Cejudo, the team is reluctant to give another featherweight champion a title shot, especially since Makhachev's first two title defences came against Topuria's predecessor, Alexander Volkanovski. However, neither Nurmagomedov nor his team have reacted to the claim thus far.