Morante halts traffic on Madrid’s Alcalá Street and stirs up social media.

The 2025 Charity Bullfight will be remembered as a remarkable event. What happened on Sunday with the bullfighter Morante de la Puebla, both inside and outside the ring, is unparalleled in any other bullfighting story, both because of the character himself and the social impact of his exit on the shoulders through the Grand Entrance of Las Ventas, the Sevillian bullfighter’s triumph. Social media was still buzzing on Monday afternoon with the bullfighter’s success, and numerous photos, images, and comments continued to celebrate the greatness of the bullfight headlined by Morante in Madrid on June 8, 2025.

At the very moment the bullfight ended, shortly after nine-thirty on Sunday night, several hundred young people jumped into the ring and surrounded the bullfighter, who remained almost barricaded in the alley.

Amid shouts of “bullfighter, bullfighter” and “José Antonio! Morante de la Puebla!”, the figure of the matador, wrapped in a black light suit, slowly emerged from the crowd like in the solemn lifting of a float during Holy Week in Seville. Thus, surrounded by young men and women ecstatic with joy, carried on the shoulders of his most loyal fans, including his own son José Antonio, a successful football player for Real Betis Balompié, he took a lap around the ring to receive the tribute from a moved audience before heading toward the passage that leads out through the Grand Entrance onto Madrid’s Alcalá Street.

There awaited the bullfighter’s van, as is customary after such a shoulder-carrying, a place of farewell before disappearing into the traffic on the way to the hotel, but the young fans broke tradition and decided to carry the bullfighter on their shoulders all the way to the Wellington Hotel, located over two kilometers away from the bullring on Velázquez Street.

The crowd shut down traffic up Alcalá Street, and it was the National Police on horseback, who had escorted the bullfighter during his shoulder exit, that prevented the procession from continuing to the nearby Manuel Becerra square to avoid a public order conflict.

Morante arrived at the hotel in his van, and there his followers gathered to continue cheering for their bullfighter, prompting Morante to step out in a robe onto the balcony of his room to greet those calling his name.

At the Wellington Hotel, Infanta Elena—who the bullfighter had dedicated the death of his first bull to—and her daughter Victoria Federica, who had witnessed the bullfight, came to congratulate the matador. From there, Morante, his manager Pedro Jorge Marques, and a small group of close friends celebrated the triumph at a nearby nightclub, where they stayed until well into the early morning.

The Infanta Elena and her daughter came to the hotel to congratulate him, and the bullfighter and his closest friends ended up in a nightclub until well into the early morning.

Morante travels on Monday night by AVE to Seville, and he is scheduled to appear in Salamanca on Saturday for a mano a mano with the young Marco Pérez, and on Sunday he will enter the ring in the Madrid town of Móstoles, alongside Tomás Rufo and Alejandro Chicharro.

Before the nightclub celebration, Morante spoke for the radio program El Toril on Onda Madrid, stating that, after succeeding in the rings of Seville and Madrid, “I don’t know what else is left; perhaps, continuing to win over the hearts of the fans, which is what keeps my excitement alive to keep bullfighting.”

He mentioned that the shoulder-carrying had been “a bit chaotic, but at the same time very joyful, because it was a special afternoon when, at last, I was able to exit through that longed-for and dreamed Grand Entrance.” Morante recalled that the black suit he wore would not be worn again because “everyone who came close wanted to take a piece, and I don’t know if I’ll take it to a museum or keep it as a memory in my home.”

“It is said that you are the most important bullfighter in history,” the journalist whispered. And at 45 years old, Morante replied: “Someone reminded me a few days ago that Joselito el Gallo was at it at 16 years old, not at my age; I mean, I don’t know if it’s that much…”