Dana White is bringing a massive double-header of world title fights to The Sphere in Las Vegas as the UFC goes head-to-head with one of boxing’s biggest stars.
Sean O’Malley will defend his bantamweight title against long-time rival Merab Dvalishvili, while Alexa Grasso defends her strawweight belt in a trilogy. The card will also feature a number of other exciting clashes in a tribute to Mexican Independence Day.
The event is going directly opposite Canelo Alvarez’s fight with Edgar Berlanga, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena. It’s believed that White has pumped in over $17million into the event, which he promises to blow fans away.
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Dana White announces UFC 306 world title double header
Overnight, UFC CEO Dana White announced the full ‘Noche UFC’ card, which will see O’Malley and Merab finally settle their feud on a massive Mexican-themed event. The Shevchenko and Grasso trilogy is one of the sport’s most intriguing, and also serves as the finale of this season of The Ultimate Fighter.
The event will kick off with Raul Rosas Jr facong Aori Qileng and will also include the rescheduled Diego Lopes vs Brian Ortega fight that was due last month. The pair were supposed to face off in the co-main event of UFC 303, but the fight fell through with hours to go and Lopes was forced to face Dan Ige.
The rest of the card features Esteban Ribovics vs Daniel Zellhuber, Ode Osbourne vs Ronaldo Rodríguez, Ignacio Bahamondes vs Manuel Torres, Irene Aldana vs Norma Dumont, Kevin Borjas vs Edgar Chairez and Yazmin Jáuregui vs Ketlen Souza.
UFC 306 pits boxing’s most influential man against its biggest star
A fascinating side story to the UFC 306 vs Canelo Alvarez ordeal is the men behind the scenes. Riyadh Season has become a name sponsor for the UFC’s event, meaning that the show has express interest from Turki Alalshikh.
The Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Alalshikh has become arguably boxing’s most influential figure as he has forced through a number of super-fights. Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk finally unified the heavyweight division after 24 years of split belts under his watch.
He even managed to end a bitter lifetime feud between British boxing’s biggest promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren. The pair’s families had been feuding and despite the pair being far and away the most noteworthy promoters in their markets, they had never even met before being brought together last year.
And he is now going directly up against boxing’s biggest star in Canelo Alvarez with a competing event in Las Vegas. It will be his second foray into America after a Terence Crawford boxing event on August 3, and days later he will head to the UK to stage Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium.
Alalshikh’s tactics in the boxing world have been aggressive, forcing through bouts that were previously deemed financially impossible. And he is similarly pushing the envelope with UFC 306, which is officially titled Riyadh Season: Noche UFC, telling ESPN that “We will eat him,” when asked about Alvarez.
Dana White makes history as Riyadh Season takes up title sponsorship for UFC 306
After UFC 303 last month, White was asked what factors had led him to allow a UFC pay-per-view to have its presentation rights bought for the first time ever. Historically, the promotion has simply had numbered PPV events, after dropping the idea of giving them tag lines over a decade ago.
He had a relatively simple answer for the media that night, admitting: “I spent $17million on production and it’s not even September yet.” He later explained how their board of directors had visited Las Vegas to see where that money had gone.
“I walked everybody through and our board of directors and everybody that came in was just f***ing blown away. Everybody is so pumped about this thing… There’s a lot of production that has to start, like, tomorrow.”
The event is expected to be like no sporting event before, utilizing the unique design of the new Las Vegas venue. It has already been home to a U2 residency as well as other shows such as the NHL Draft, with Dead and Company finishing up their lengthy run at the venue in the next two weeks.