‘If I Have To Go To A Stadium, I Will’

UFC CEO Dana White is committed to making a Spain event happen in 2025, even if it means having to get over his dislike of stadium venues.

Following Ilia Topuria’s impressive knockout win over Max Holloway at UFC 308 (highlights here), the post-fight press conference was full to the brim with Spanish press outlets asking UFC CEO Dana White when they could expect to see Topuria fight in his adopted home of Spain.

For his part, White didn’t confirm much beyond a desire to make it there in 2025, but he did reiterate the UFC’s desire to take their show wherever their stars were coming from.

“The answer to that is yes,” White said of more European and international cards. “This business is star driven. So when we have a South African, we wanna get to Africa. When we have somebody from Spain, we wanna get into Spain. Georgia, yes.”

“When you have a guy who can potentially be a star or is already a rising star and and you bring him into these into these markets — like, we have two Georgian world champions, right? You had Conor McGregor, who ignited all of Europe and other parts of the world. You got Topuria now. You talk about Du Plessis in Africa, Izzy and Rob over in Australia and New Zealand. It’s star driven.”

The UFC hasn’t had the greatest track record of actually doing this, though. Conor McGregor only fought once in Ireland for the UFC, and never got his promised Croke Park fight. There’s still no Du Plessis fight in sight for Africa, and there were no African shows for the Three Kings. The UFC never made it to New Zealand. And for some reason we’re not getting our hopes too high for a UFC Georgia event, despite their fervent support.

“We haven’t looked into that yet or what it would take to pull off an event near there,” White admitted. “I mean, we’re still trying to figure out Spain with the arena situation. But when you look at the performance that Topuria had tonight, we need to get to Spain and figure it out quickly.”

Failing to bring Ilia Topuria to Spain for a big show would be a massive fumble for the UFC, and White sounded intent to make it happen — even if it meant holding an event in a stadium, which he is strangely adverse to.

“We have to get it done. We have to figure this out,” he said. “I hate going to soccer stadiums. I like arenas better, but if that’s what we gotta do, then that’s what we gotta do. But yes, we need to get to Spain.”

“Did you say that the stadium was announced even though you hate going to stadiums?” a Spanish reporter asked. “Are you announcing that we’re going to the stadium?”

“No, I did not say [that],” White replied. “You guys are the best. I said if we have to, we will. I would prefer not to, but we haven’t done anything yet. Where we stand right now is all the arenas were booked up. We’re trying to figure it out. But if I have to go to a stadium, I will.”

The challenge the UFC has is that there aren’t many standard arenas in Spain. The country has about a dozen venues that hold more than 10,000 people and only four or five that can host over 15,000. Things get more interesting when you consider soccer stadiums. There’s roughly 40 of those across the country with capacities above 15,000, including Topuria’s top choice: Real Madrid’s Bernabau stadium, which holds over 85,000 people.

Asked what Barcelona or Madrid could do to bring UFC to their city, White had a one word answer.

“Availability,” he said. “Availability, number one.”

“I wanna go to Spain as bad as Spain wants us to come,” he concluded. “So we’re working on it. We’ll get it done. There’s never been a time where we said we’re gonna do something and we don’t do it. We figure it out and we’ll get it done. And it’s important for me to go to Spain in in 2025, so we’ll figure it out.”