Something strange happened in the lead-up to Noche UFC, the organization’s second annual celebration of Mexican Independence Day. For the first time since I became interested in MMA during the McGregor era and fell in love with the sport during the pandemic, I skipped all of my UFC fight week traditions. I hadn’t watched a single episode of Embeddednor did I watch the press conference on Thursday or the ceremonial weigh-in on Friday. And I certainly didn’t have my usual “just one more sleep” nervousness on Saturday. What I realize now is that my lack of enthusiasm was the result of a kind of insecurity that breeds reticence rather than curiosity.
Almost everything about Saturday night’s card left me and other fans scratching our heads, starting with the hodgepodge of a name: UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche UFC. And then there was the star of the promotional campaign. No, not homegrown, hype-machine-produced Sean O’Malley, and not even Mexico’s own Alexa Grasso, but The Sphere (or simply “Sphere,” as it was referred to throughout the broadcast). A Mexican-inspired fight night that somehow became a numbered pay-per-view presented by a Saudi Arabian festival series whose main attraction was an arena left me with questions that couldn’t be answered by the sights and sounds of a typical fight week. Instead, those questions were answered by the usual ingenuity of the most production-savvy combat sports promotion this side of the WWE.
When it was first reported, cheapest place in the house would cost over $2,000, I wondered if more passionate Mexican and Mexican-American combat sports fans would afford the price in favor of casuals with comfortable salaries and corporate credit cards. That worry was silenced when I heard the crowd cheering for Raúl Rosas Jr. as he walked toward the Octagon before the first preliminary fight of the evening. I did my best Irish accent and asked who the hell is this guy when I found out that four fighters I had never heard of were opening the main card. And lo and behold, those were the two most entertaining fights of the night, with Esteban Ribovics and Daniel Zellhuber receiving Fight of the Night bonuses that could just as easily have gone to Ronaldo Rodríguez and Ode’ Osbourne. And when Sean O’Malley had a problem with himself at one point I noted with interest that soon turned to ambivalence that the venue was being promoted more heavily than the then-bantamweight champion who was at the top of the bill. I don’t know what he meant, but by the end of the night I understood why that was, because the excitement of what a sporting event at The Sphere could look like paid off more than the one-sided thrashing that most educated fans correctly predicted he would receive if he were to lose in the main event.
But above all, the main question I asked myself last night was why the UFC’s first and possibly only appearance at The Sphere need on Mexican Independence Day? As Noche UFC approached, I thought that an event featuring the possible return of Conor McGregor or Jon Jones would probably have resulted in a bigger pop-cultural spectacle, International Fight Week would have resulted in less complicated branding, and UFC 300, which fans and pundits also made the mistake of underestimatingwould have enabled a deeper map. Here too, the event itself convinced me of its advantages, so that no moment was missed Embedded or a confrontation at a press conference could have prepared me for this.
No alternative I could have thought of for a more fitting Sphere card would have resulted in the stunning story of Noche UFC. Produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Carlos López Estrada’s Antigravity Academy, the six cutscenes made perfect use of the Sphere’s immersive capabilities, transporting audiences through Mexican history with imagery that was awe-inspiring even on a television screen. Ancient civilizations, heroic freedom fighters, spiritual traditions, iconic martial artists, and the virtues of Mexican culture were all celebrated with Lucasesque light and magic. Eight first and second generation Mexican Octagon Girls strutted between rounds in stunning costumes inspired by their shared heritage.
Aside from the main event, the fights themselves lived up to the evening’s pageantry in a way that only the drama of high-level MMA can, especially when booked to celebrate a culture’s fighting spirit. Minutes after a short film told the story of the indigenous warriors, the first people to fight for the land that is now called Mexico, Mexican flyweight Ronaldo Rodriguez escaped two near-complete submissions and fought his way to a unanimous decision victory over Ode’ Osbourne. Immediately afterward, Mexico City native Daniel Zellhuber fought Argentinian Esteban Ribovics with the breakneck pace of a Street Fighter He hammered the buttons, lost on the cards, but won over fans like me who were seeing him fight for the first time. And despite a lackluster performance from former women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso, I seemed to be on tenterhooks once a round trying to get Valentina Shevchenko to tee off.
Much like 300 before it, there are images from UFC 306 that will be seared into my brain for the rest of my fanbase; exciting moments I never would have predicted if I had compared the names on the card with the over-the-top hype that preceded them.
I don’t know if Noche UFC has turned out to be “the greatest sporting event of all time” as UFC CEO Dana White promised in July. In his post-fight press conference, White himself admitted that it was up to the public to decide whether the evening lived up to that claim. In general, I’m a bit allergic to such grand statements. But I must admit that Noche UFC was the most impressive televised sporting event I’ve ever seen with my own eyes – better than any Super Bowl, NBA finals or WrestleMania I’ve ever seen.
It was a spectacle I wasn’t really expecting, but one I’ll never forget. If you’re still with me, scroll or click through the photos below to see what made the night so unforgettable.
