LAS VEGAS -- There are certain iconic venues in the American sporting landscape that, for one reason or another, hold a special place in the hearts of fans. Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston immediately leap to mind. So, too, does Madison Square Garden in New York and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. For golfers, the reverence is held for Augusta National Golf Club.
That's usually not the case for a fight card. The athletes, like UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones (who may or may not be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world), are always the stars. The venue is simply where to be on fight night.
For Noche UFC on Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas, however, that's decidedly not the case. Bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley defends his title in the main event of what first was known as UFC 306 against top challenger Merab Dvalishvili.
The venue will be the star of this show no matter how the fights play out.
The Sphere, which sits just off the famed Las Vegas Strip behind the palatial Venetian and Palazzo resorts, was constructed by James L. Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, at a cost of $2.3 billion. Construction began in 2018 and the venue opened with a U2 concert on Sept. 29, 2023.
The LED exterior is 580,000 square feet, standing 366 feet high and 516 feet wide. For concerts, it seats 17,600, but the UFC show will be somewhat less. UFC CEO Dana White said it will be about 17,000 or so for Noche UFC.
There are 167,000 individually amplified speakers in the venue and the video wall has 173 million individual LED light nodes.
White attended a U2 concert shortly after its opening and was so blown away, he immediately decided he had to do a show there.
"You know how we are, and how we like to be first at everything," White said as he gave me a tour of an off-limits room at UFC headquarters that has a mock-up of how The Sphere will be laid out and look on fight night. "I saw this place and I knew we had to do a fight card there. And what we're doing will be something nobody will ever do again. It's almost impossible."
He made it almost impossible to preview because three-quarters of the way through the tour, he said most of what I'd seen and heard was off-the-record. He is adamant about not spoiling the surprise, though he hopes those watching at TV will be able to feel the experience of what it is like in those most unusual venue.
As U2 was playing White called Craig Borsari, the UFC's chief content officer and executive producer, and said he wanted to get a pay-per-view card done in Sphere.
"DURING the concert," Borsari said, looking at White and breaking into a laugh. "Dana calls me and says, 'Craig, this place is incredible. We have an do a show here.' And I can hear U2 playing as I'm trying to listen to him."
So Borsari went to a concert at Sphere to check it out and see what was possible. Seating is theater-like at there, unlike in normal UFC settings, which are in the round. So that presented all sorts of logistical issues. The more Borsari looked and thought, the more he felt like it wasn't going to be able to be done, at least not to the standard White would want.
White and Borsari have worked together for years and Borsari knows better than anyone, however, that White doesn't understand the meaning of impossible. And so he struggled before he picked up the phone to call White.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'OK, how do I call Dana and tell him we're not going to be able to do this?' " Borsari said.
He knew White, though, and he knew White wasn't going to accept no without making every effort to get it done. The first issue was unrelated to the technical problems putting a UFC fight card on at Sphere would present. Instead, it was a business issue: UFC has an exclusive contract to hold its numbered events in Las Vegas at MGM Resorts properties, so permission was need from the MGM to go to Sphere instead of either the MGM-owned T-Mobile Arena or the MGM Grand Garden.
LVCVA
The outside of The Sphere, advertising the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.
Bill Hornbuckle, the president of MGM Resorts, gave White the green light.
"Hornbuckle has been awesome," said White, who has no such kind words for T-Mobile Arena's leadership team.
White charged Borsari with putting together a plan and drawing up a budget. After several tours and numerous meetings, ideas began to emerge. And Borsari submitted an initial budget proposal of $8 million.
That quickly proved to be woefully inadequate.
"We're over $20 million on it now," said White, who said the event has less than 2,000 tickets left to sell and will produce a UFC-record $21 million gate.
The event is being on Mexican Independence Day weekend. In Las Vegas, major boxing events have been held on that weekend and, true to form, super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez will headline a show at T-Mobile against Edgar Berlanga. Alvarez is one of boxing's top draws.
Noche UFC will be headlined by an American in O'Malley and a naturalized American in Dvalishvili, a native of Georgia who became a U.S. citizen earlier this year.
Despite that, White said the show will be "a love letter to the Mexican people." The UFC hired a creative team -- "All A+ people," Borsari said -- who have won 29 Emmys, one Golden Globe, one Grammy and have been nominated for two Academy Awards.
They have created what White and Borsari call "worlds," and there will be short videos before each bout. They will build and tell a story throughout the show. There will be tributes to Mexican legends and culture, throughout. Because the fighter walkouts will be coming from opposite ends of the arenas, there needed to be two crews for that. And because of the ambitious plan the UFC has undertaken just for the walk-outs, timing and precision is of the essence just for those.
As an aside, White said there will five "Easter Eggs," flashed on the massive screens during the show. The first fan to correctly identify all five will win $25,000.
Small changes to the videos required enormous effort. The UFC's cold open at most of its pay-per-view shows takes two hours for the video to render. To put them on the giant screens at Sphere, it takes seven to 10 days.
Las Vegas is in the midst of one of its hottest summers ever, but even with temperatures well over 100 degrees in early September, the render farm is kept so cold that one needs to wear a winter coat to go inside to allow the computers to properly render the video.
The production required was enormous, and much of that was off-the-record because White doesn't want to spoil fight night. None of the regular UFC Octagon girls will work the fight. Instead, 10 women were chosen specially for this show and each will work one fight.
There will be four television trucks used, instead of the UFC's usual two.
The UFC will produce a documentary about the show and also hopes to make the main card available for the thousands of visitors who tour Sphere during the day each month to purchase and watch inside.
White took heat from his comment following UFC 303 on June 29 at T-Mobile Arena when he was asked about The NHL Draft at The Sphere. He said, "What they did will be like kids playing with crayons compared to what we're going to do. Literally, kids playing with crayons."
After seeing some of it during the tour and learning of the numerous technical issues that had to be solved in order to do it, he's right. It's a hugely ambitious undertaking and will be jaw-dropping if it comes off without a hitch.
White often speaks of the UFC "doing all the bells and whistles," while the fighters are truly the show.
Well, the fighters are the show at Noche UFC, but there's a good chance they'll be overshadowed on this one night by the venue they're competing in.
The Sphere is an incredible facility and the UFC team's plans for the event there is equally remarkable.
Kevin Iole
Matchmakers Sean Shelby (L) and Mick Maynard (second from left), chief business officer Hunter Campbell (second from right) and CEO Dana White (R) at UFC headquarters.