The anticipation for UFC Noche hasn’t been similar to the build-up that most pay-per-view cards get.
While discussion around the average numbered UFC card is often strictly about the top fighters who will compete, the actual setting and presentation of Saturday’s show have seemingly overshadowed the fights.
The title bouts on Saturday aren’t bad at all. Easily the best fight to make at bantamweight will headline the night, as incumbent champ Sean O’Malley will try and defend his spot against long-time Georgian contender Merab Dvalishvili. And in a storied rivalry at flyweight, Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko will meet for a third championship clash.
But despite the quality of the two title fights, the UFC Noche brand itself has eclipsed discussion on those fighters. The reason? It’s a first-of-its-kind event.
The card on Saturday will be presented at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, a unique LED ball structure that has gone viral dozens of times since its doors opened late last year. Saturday’s presentation will not just be UFC’s first trip there, but the first live sporting event to ever take place in the venue (unless you count the NHL Draft).
The venue has incredible visual capabilities, hence why it has been such a talked-about location since its launch. It has provided a massive challenge to the UFC, who has looked at ways to make the most of their trip to the venue on Saturday.
For UFC Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari, the challenge that this year’s UFC Noche card would present really became clear when he attended one of U2’s residency concerts at the location.
“When I got there, the stress levels started to increase,” Borsari said as part of a panel hosted by the UFC on Wednesday. “This was not as simple as us going into a traditional venue, any venue we’d been in for the past 20 years to put on a fight. There were a lot of challenges that were presented to us that night while we were watching the concert.”
Challenges came in many shapes and forms, and all had to be answered in just a few months. Issues would range from details like how to properly capture the event’s theme, to less exciting but still incredibly essential questions like: How do we properly even light the cage in this venue?
Months of work and $20 million later, UFC has a card that CEO Dana White claims will “push the envelope.”
The promotion is understandably keeping most details about the show under wraps, making it hard for viewers to know what to expect. However, a panel earlier this week—which MMA Fighting attended and uploaded to their Youtube page—featuring just a few of the many names behind the event provided maybe the best insight yet as to how the evening will play out.
As explained by the five panellists who spoke to the media at the UFC APEX on Wednesday, the Sphere will take two different forms throughout the night, airing short films and “worlds.”
The short movies – of which there are six led by film director Carlos López Estrada – will play in between fights and show Mexico’s history. Director López Estrada said that each film will come with a different style and story-based theme.
“I want to think of new ways to tell Mexican stories,” he said, mentioning that the films will try to go from the very start of Mexico’s history through to what futurism in the culture might look like someday.
When the short films aren’t airing, the Sphere will turn into “Worlds.” These atmospheres, which will change throughout the night, will immerse fans and viewers but will take form in a way that doesn’t distract from the fighting. It’s still a sporting event, after all.
“When the film is being played, it is the show,” said Chris Kartzmark, UFC Senior Vice President of Production and Programming. “It is the total focal point and it’s self-contained. The worlds are different. They are, at times, the focal point and they are spectacular in their own right, but they are essentially environments where they’ll house other content. The traditional pay-per-view fight content, features, the walkout, the fights themselves.”
For the significant majority of viewers who won’t be catching the event by attending the card in person, they might be wondering how much of the experience they will actually receive through the traditional broadcast. Can the unique atmosphere of the Sphere be properly also carried on PPV?
UFC’s Borsari explained that the promotion greatly expanded their production team to help deal with this dynamic. In what sounds like a balancing act between the usual UFC presentation and the more live atmosphere, both will be mixed together.
“There are times where the fights are taking place where you’ll see a more traditional coverage from our production team,” Borsari explained. “And then there are times where the film is running or even transitions into some of the worlds where we will be covering from a different set of cameras to give you that fully immersive experience as if you were seated inside the venue.”
Saturday’s UFC Noche card has the potential to be an event unlike any other. The way it will mix live sports with art is something that excited López Estrada, who is behind the film portion of the show’s broadcast.
“The fact that it’s a sporting event but you’re going to invite people in between the fights to sit and just watch a short film, a short chapter of a film, is unlike anything I have ever seen,” he said. “This dialogue between sports and entertainment and being able to bring my film sensibility into such a unique type of thing, I just can’t believe that we’re gonna do this.”
For now, everything we know about UFC Noche is word of mouth. Due to the promotion releasing basically no demos of the event to the public thus far, it remains a mysterious show that we can only picture in our heads. However, that will change in just a few days.
The full UFC 306 Creative Panel can be watched here, courtesy of MMA Fighting.
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