Following his impressive performance against Josh Emett at UFC on ABC 5,
Ilia Topuria is in line for the featherweight title opportunity. It is surprising that
the UFC has never held an event in Spain, where the Georgian and Spanish
Mixed Martial artist have dual citizenship with Georgia. He moved there at
the age of 15. Topuria recently revealed that he plans to change that and
voiced his belief that the promotion would sell out Real Madrid’s Santiago
Bernabeu stadium.
MMA is getting popular in Spain now
While speaking to MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, the No. 5-ranked featherweight
stated that it is crazy to see how MMA is growing in Spain because, when he
started, nobody knew anything about MMA there. The people used to question
what sport it was and why the fighters punched each other. Now everyone knows
about MMA, and they follow the UFC too. He further stated that if UFC brings an
event to Spain, they’ll sell out the entire arena in just one day, and there is no
doubt about it.
Topuria shows confidence that UFC will sell out in Spain
The 26-year-old also said that if the UFC holds an event at Spain’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where the seating capacity is 83,168, the fans will come from all over Europe. The fight that holds the record for the largest live crowd in UFC history was between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whitaker for the middleweight title. This event took place at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, and was attended by 57,127 fans.
Ilia believes he will end the fight in first round
Alexander Volkanovski is the current UFC Featherweight champion, and he has held this title since 2019, which also makes him the longest reigning champion in the UFC. During this span of time, he has defended the title five times and is inching closer to Jose Aldo’s featherweight record of seven title defences. Reportedly, he is targeting Topuria for his sixth title defence, and the Georgian believes that he will finish the fight in the first round and become the new featherweight champion.
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