Ilia Topuria He is undoubtedly the best Spanish fighter in the UFC, the largest martial arts competition on the planet and the one that attracts the most followers, especially young people. And last Saturday he demonstrated it again by retaining the featherweight title after a spectacular KO over Max Holloway. The fight aimed to be one of the best of the year and it did not disappoint. The Hispanic-Georgian promised to knock out the American and he kept it.
But the life of “El Matador” changed radically that February 18, 2024, he made history by beating Alexander Volkanovski, considered by many the best featherweight in the history of the UFC. A triumph that would make Topuria the first Spaniard to win a title in the octagon and that triggered interest in this sport in our country.
And in fact, after the spectacular KO de Topuria once again sounded strongly about the idea of scheduling a UFC event in Spain
In a press conference after the fight, the champion dropped the possibility that the UFC would arrive in Spain “before the summer of 2025”. Ilia announced that it was not the time to talk about it, but said he had a pending conversation with Dana White. “If you put an octagon inside the Santiago Bernabéu, the fighters look like ants, but he has reasons for doing so. I will sit with him and push towards the Bernabéu. I would like to fight again before the summer of 2025,” stated the featherweight champion. .
Dana White, president and CEO of the UFC, also admitted the arrival of these events in our country and announced that they were studying to take to Barcelona one of these massive events: “Looking ahead to next year, we value Madrid and Barcelona, we will see what happens.”
Until now, it was public knowledge that Madrid aspired to host one of these days, but never had the name of Barcelona been so clearly put on the table. A statement that has not gone down well with Barcelona, which is not willing to welcome “El Matador”.
“We will not promote that sport”
According to RAC1, Barcelona City Council says ‘no’ to that possibility. What’s more, he does not want this event in the city, he has no intention of promoting this type of sport and they assure RAC1 that no one from the UFC has spoken to them.
The only option, they admit, is for the UFC to privately rent a venue like the Palau Sant Jordi to hold the event. In this sense, it would be Barcelona Serveis Municipals that would have the upper hand, but BSM is hanging on to the City Council, which is against it.
A decision that leaves Madrid with an advantage and that has provoked endless reactions on social networks. “Normal, they already have free UFC in the streets every day”, “We don’t want Real Madrid fans, let them go to the Bernabéu” or “You can see that they won’t like me going with the Spanish flag…” These are some of the messages that flood the networks.