LAS VEGAS — Pop quiz time. What do music superstar Taylor Swift and UFC champion Sean O’Malley have in common?
Swift likely doesn’t have much of a ground game and O’Malley probably doesn’t have a multi-octave vocal range.
But this week they share a production team. Silent House Group, the same company that produced Swift’s massive Eras Tour film, is working on the creative side for UFC 306 (also billed as Noche UFC) at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday night — headlined by O’Malley, a Helena native.
Combat sports and concerts might seem like different worlds, but UFC president Dana White spared no expense for what he’s calling the “greatest sporting event in history”.
“It’s exactly what I’d hoped for,” White told media this week. “I’m excited about it. I’m proud of it.”
On Wednesday, the UFC offered media a sneak preview at what’s in store for fight fans at the first ever live sporting event held at the one-of-a-kind, $2 billion entertainment venue. They held a panel featuring some of the creative personnel in charge of pulling it off behind the scenes.
Craig Borsari, the Chief Content Officer of the UFC, said there were plenty of obstacles to hosting a UFC event in such a unique venue but the team he helped assemble found solutions and are ready to make history.
“At the UFC, we don’t say no. We figure out a way,” Borsari said “It was just hard to figure out what that way was going to be.”
Dana White has called the event a "love letter" to Mexico and a tribute to the Mexican people for their extraordinary contributions to combat sports. UFC 306 also continues a long tradition of holding big fights around Mexican Independence Day.
Here’s what fans in attendance at Noche UFC can expect.
The UFC will utilize the 160,000 square foot curved LED panel to broadcast six short films played between each fight of the main card celebrating Mexico’s independence. They are produced by Hollywood director Carlos Lopez Estrada, whose director credits include the films "Raya and the Last Dragon" and "Blindspotting."
“It was a challenge. I wanted to tell a story about my culture and about my people on the largest screen in the world,” Estrada said. “And try to find the most exciting ways of doing it.”
Then each fight will take place in a different “world” projected inside the arena.
“They’re essentially environments that will house traditional pay per view fight content. Features, walkouts, the fights themselves,” said Chris Kartzmark, the UFC Senior Vice President for production and programming. “So while they’re also spectacular they serve a purpose. And they have to be dynamic and responsive to live cues.”
There will also be haptic seats which will provide force feedback to fans in attendance based on the videos playing and the action of the fights.
But the Sphere only seats 18,000 people. What will the experience be like for the millions of viewers watching the event on television?
To address that, the UFC hired director Glenn Weiss who has directed the Academy Awards for the past eight years.
“He loves the challenge of this thing,” White said. “We had to bring in two extra broadcast trucks. (Weiss) will be shooting both of those things at the same time to try to give you the feel like you’re inside the Sphere whether you’re watching at home or in a bar, or wherever.”
The last piece of the puzzle was assembling the fight card with enough star power to draw eyeballs and do justice to a potentially once-in-a-lifetime event. And the UFC turned to O’Malley, the biggest star in mixed martial arts. And the Helena native is ready for the moment.
“Dana gave me goosebumps just talking about it,” O’Malley said. “Once he showed me his vision of it, how much effort he put into it and how much work the UFC and everyone has put into this. It really gives you a different perspective of how crazy of an event this is going to be.”
