UFC fighter allegedly involved in a brawl at Spanish bar

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

A UFC fighter was allegedly involved in a group melee at a bar in Spain earlier this week.

Security footage showed featherweight contender Ilia Topuria attacking a fellow patron at the bar after twice being showed by him for apparently no reason.

Topuria could be seen playing a retro arcade game alongside Spanish singer media personality Omar Montes when the unknown assailant came up and pushed him. In the short clip, Topuria refrained from responding until the assailant pushed him a second time, after which the 25-year-old grabbed the man by the shirt and shoved him against the wall before landing several punches.

Montes, who went viral in 2020 with a fight clip that was actually just promotion for a music video, issued a statement confirming his role in the incident while also threatening action against those who leaked the CCTV footage.

“We will be taking measures after whoever released the fight video from the bar cameras,” Montes said in a statement translated by ESPN Deportes’ Carlos Contreras Legaspi. “I’m really not like that but I won’t stay with my arms crossed if they come after my friend. I apologize”

As for Topuria, the Georgian-born Spaniard is coming off an impressive submission victory against Bryce Mitchell at UFC 282. The win improved his undefeated record to 13-0 and cemented him a future contender for the title.

However, Topuria’s bar antics come just a few days after footage showed UFC President Dana White slapping his wife during a New Year’s Eve party in Mexico.

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.