Ilia Topuria says UFC could land in Spain before the end of 2026

Ilia Topuria says he wants more than just a big June title fight. He wants another one before the year is over, and he says Spain could be the place for it.

That line alone is enough to get people moving, because UFC has never held an event in Spain. For years it was one of those ideas fans liked to bring up without much reason to believe it was close. Topuria changed that the moment he became champion. Now he is talking about it himself, while still sitting in the middle of one of the biggest stretches of his career.

He is already booked for a huge fight with Justin Gaethje in June, so none of this gets off the ground unless he handles that first. But the way Topuria is speaking now, he is clearly thinking beyond one defense. He is looking at the rest of 2026 like a champion who wants to keep the belt active and use that run to pull the UFC somewhere new with him.

Topuria wants a second fight this year and Spain is now part of the conversation

There is a reason this idea feels different coming from him than it would from most fighters. Topuria is not asking for a homecoming after years away from relevance. He is not trying to use a location to create interest around himself. He already has the belt, already has momentum, and already has the kind of style that makes people stop what they are doing when his fights get close. If the UFC ever needed one clear figure to build its first Spain event around, it would be hard to find a better one than this version of Topuria.

Spain has long felt like an open door the UFC never fully walked through. The market is there, the audience is there, and the promotion has spent enough years growing across Europe to know the region can carry major cards if the right star is attached to them. France caught quickly once the company got the timing right. London has been strong for years. Spain always seemed like it needed one fighter to make the push feel worth it. Topuria may be that fighter now.

He is also saying it at the right time. Champions can talk about future plans all they want, but those plans only sound real when the name, the belt and the schedule all line up together. Topuria has that right now. He is undefeated, he is in a major slot in June, and he is one of the few fighters on the roster who can speak to a local market while still carrying global interest. That matters when the UFC starts looking at where it can build a card that feels new without feeling risky.

There is still a big condition hanging over all of it. He has to beat Gaethje first. If he does, the Spain talk gets louder immediately. If he does not, the whole idea cools off just as fast. That is the reality of this business. Plans sound bold in April and disappear in June if the result goes the wrong way. Topuria knows that too, which is probably why he is presenting it as the next step rather than pretending it is already done.

• Topuria wants to fight in June and then return again later in 2026.
• He says Spain could host that second fight.
• The UFC has never staged an event there before.
• The plan becomes much more realistic if he beats Gaethje.

For Spanish fans, that is enough to make this more than idle talk. A first UFC event in the country would already be a major moment. A first UFC event in Spain headlined by a champion like Topuria would feel even bigger. He is not just popular. He gives the promotion a clean anchor for the whole event, and that changes the way a new market gets viewed inside the company.

Topuria has always carried himself like a fighter who expects the sport to move around him, not the other way around. Sometimes that kind of confidence sounds forced. In his case, it fits the moment. He is already one of the central names in the UFC calendar, and if he gets through June with the belt still around his waist, the company will have a very real decision to make. Keep him on the usual path, or let him headline a first-ever Spain card that would instantly feel important because of who is attached to it.

Nothing has been announced yet, and there is still work in front of him. But the idea is no longer floating around with no shape to it. Topuria put it on the table himself, and now the rest depends on how June goes. If he wins, this story gets a lot more serious very quickly.