Ilia Topuria is all set to fight for the soon-to-be vacant lightweight championship belt against Charles Oliveira at the International Fight Week. Needless to say, the anticipation for the fight is pretty high in the fighting community. But what if someone on social media hinted at the fight being called off? The entire MMA world would be furious. And that’s what almost happened when the fans came across a recent update from the former featherweight champion’s training camp. 

‘El Matador’ is one of the most balanced fighters in the UFC right now. He has won 6 bouts via KO/TKO, and another 8 by submissions in his MMA career. With a record of 16-0, Topuria has managed to strike fear in his opponents’ hearts, with his marquee trait being his punching power. The fanbase acknowledged that the Spaniard’s striking prowess was indeed a force to be reckoned with after he became the first fighter to ever knock Max Holloway out. And during his training camp, he seemingly focused on his visual reaction speed. 

Visual reaction speed is the time that a person takes to respond to a visual stimulus. For the average person, visual reaction speed is about 0.25 seconds. But for athletes, it’s significantly lower. And Topuria has reportedly practiced shortening his visual reaction speed during his camp for UFC 317. That’s what Irati Prat, a celebrated Spanish sports journalist, revealed through social media. 

Prat claimed, “Preparing content for UFC 317: His team tells me that Ilia Topuria has broken his visual reaction speed record multiple times during this camp. The previous record was set during his featherweight camp for UFC 308. In case anyone thoughts he’d be slower at lightweight.” This likely means that we might get to see some of Topuria’s best striking in his bout against ‘Do Bronx’. 

Prat’s went viral when MMA Pros Pick shared the quotes on Instagram. However, the post highlighted ‘broken’ in green, which caused quite a bit of noise in the comments section. Let’s see what the fighting community had to say about it. 

Fight fans skipped a beat as the misunderstanding led them to believe Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira was cancelled

Most of the fans expressed their worries when they stumbled upon the highlighted word ‘broken’. Of course, after reading on, all doubts would have been cleared. One fan reflected on this and wrote, “My heart dropped when I saw “Broken” 😩😩😩.” Another fan commented, “”Topuria has broken his…” I almost had a f—— heart attack.” One more fan wrote, “deada– though he has broken something on his body and the fight is not happening 💀.”

Meanwhile, others weighed in on the fighters’ records and picked their winners. One fan claimed, “Ilia knocking out Oliveira in light speed is crazy.” Another fan commented, “I like Oliveira bur Ilia is gonna humiliate him.”

On the other hand, many others stood in support of ‘Do Bronx’. Although he’s not undefeated, the Brazilian has established himself as a pretty amazing grappler. With a record of 35-10, Oliveira has defeated 21 fighters via submission. Fans believe that he might repeat it with Topuria, rendering his visual reaction speed records useless.

One fan commented, “What good does that do when Charles can choke him standing up 😂.” Another comment read, “Not gonna help when get’s chocked by Olivera.” But we can’t overlook the former lightweight champion’s KO power, can we? After all, he has 10 fights via KO/TKO. A fan wrote, “Yeah, yeah so many talks and in the end he will be knocked out 🥱.” 

The stage is set for an epic lightweight showdown. Both outcomes present an incredible visual for fans—Ilia Topuria becoming a 2-weight champion, or Charles Oliveira becoming a 2-time lightweight champion. Which outcome do you think will play out? Let us know in the comments.