Barcelona City Council reportedly slams door on Ilia Topuria's UFC Spain dreams, refutes rumors of negotiations or contacts from the organization

Ilia Topuria and Dana White's vision of having UFC Spain in the Catalan city of Barcelona might not come to reality soon. As per Spanish media outlet Mundo Deportivo, the Barcelona City Council is not interested in hosting a UFC event in the city, particularly inside the Palau Sant Jordi, a sizable 18,000-seater arena.

With MMA and the UFC enjoying a surge in popularity in Spain thanks to Topuria's rise to the global stage, a few Spanish fight promotions have gained traction, such as WOW FC and WAR MMA. Still, most events happen in Topuria's home city of Alicante and the country's capital, Madrid.

It must be noted, however, that WOW FC held its first-ever MMA event in Barcelona, WOW: Barcelona on Oct. 19. It was held inside the Palau Vall D'Hebron, a smaller, indoor venue that hosted a few events for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.

Sources from the Barcelona City Council have gone on record to say that no negotiations or contacts have been made by UFC, thus making the UFC's trip to the Catalan city more and more impossible.

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Ilia Topuria's ultimate dream for UFC Spain: Headline in front of 78,300 people inside the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

Although Barcelona might have been stricken from the list of prospective cities for the UFC's first trip to Spain, there's still Madrid. The Spanish capital city has the legendary Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of the legendary football team Real Madrid since 1947.

After his once-in-a-lifetime KO win over Max Holloway at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi this weekend, Ilia Topuria expressed his desire to have a historic fight inside the iconic stadium.

Although, UFC CEO Dana White has said during the UFC 308 press conference that he's not a fan of conducting events in stadiums, he's not completely opposed to it if it's the only way to go. The visionary fight promoter was able to pull off the impossible by holding Noche UFC 306 inside The Sphere, after all. Taking on a 78,300-seater stadium might just be a walk in the park for White.