UFC 306, poses one of the biggest innovations in the sport's history. It won't be the inside the octagon, with two championship belts - O'Malley vs Dvalishvili and Grasso vs Shevchenko III - on the line.
It will be the packaging. The biggest league in mixed martial arts moves to the Sphere in Las Vegas, one of the most impressive venues in the world. In English it would be a gamechanger.
The Sphere is like nothing you've ever seen before. It is a literally spherical stadium for 18,600 seated spectators.
It boasts immersive audio and video capabilities that are displayed on its screen, with a 16K resolution surround LED screen or 4D physical effects. The spectator enters inside, with all senses, of the events. The UFC wants to be the protagonist.
It all stems from an obsession. Dana White attended one of the first concerts in the history of the Sphere, by U2. He was totally enamored and wanted to take the UFC there. He got the push he needed, because the venue he had signed an exclusive contract with in Las Vegas, the T-Mobile Arena, wanted to bring Canelo Alvarez to their arena on the night the major MMA league was to host UFC 306. That prompted White, as Sportsnet tells it, to push to host UFC Night - blockbuster format - at the Sphere.
"It's going to be a movie everything surrounding the night. And there are chapters within the movie. Basically, before every fight there will be a movie and it will be shown in the Sphere. When the fighters jump in, they will go on to be the stars. It will be a history of combat sports in Mexico, its people and traditions," White said. At the same time he keeps repeating that it will be a historic event. "It will only happen once," he said. And with the danger of costly failures if something bad happens. There, for example, are casualties of the stars before the fights.
The concept is so radically different that there are no certain criteria for knowing whether it will work. On the table, an expenditure of 20 million dollars.
For technology, holograms, bonuses and show. They say from UFC that in comparison it would be what U2 did in their concert... multiplied by a million. "The $20 million I spent won't mean anything if the fights aren't amazing. I won't know until the end of the last fight," recounted the company's CEO.
An obsession, a goal... and a dream. Dana White says his goal will be to win, after that evening, an Oscar, Grammy and Emmy. Almost nothing. The Sphere, which we had only seen in sports on American sports draft nights, comes into play. UFC blazes a trail.