Dana White has made a career of pushing the envelope.
The UFC boss will bring to culmination this weekend his organisation’s first-ever event in the state-of-the-art Las Vegas Sphere — an event produced with the collaboration of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, and dubbed ‘Riyadh Season Noche UFC’. Or if you prefer, UFC 306.
The event, which marks Mexican Independence Day, is the most high-concept event ever produced by the world’s leading mixed martial arts organisation, and while White is keeping his cards to his chest as to exactly why fans will get for the cost of their ticket price he previewed some elements of the show to the media, including The Mac Life, in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Speaking of the box office sales for the show of $23 million, which dwarfs the previous record of $17.7 million from the Conor McGregor-headlined UFC 205 in November 2016, White said: “It’s a big deal, especially on a fight like this. You know me, I love to break records. This is going to be the biggest gate we’ve ever done in the history of the company, and the most pre-buys on pay-per-view ever too. People buying the event the week before the event. So, as we continue to get closer to Saturday, I’m sure we’ll be breaking more records.”
As for the production itself, White added: “There’s movies, there’s chapters” which will be broadcast inside the Sphere’s gargantuan screens.
“Each chapter starts before the next fight. So there will be a show open, then the first movie will run and it will end at the end of the fight. Then — we call them ‘worlds’ and the fight will live inside this world. And the world will evolve while the fights are going on, but it will be very subtle. Clouds will move, fires will burn, birds will fly, or whatever the hell is going on in that time, and it will slowly evolve during the fight.”
And he said there will even be a little opportunity for some of the more eagled-eyes fans in the arena.
“There are also going to be Easter eggs in each one of these films,” White said. “We’re working it out with legal right now, but what I want to do, if somebody can find all the Easter eggs, I’ll give you $25,000.”
