Dana White has always prioritized giving fans the best possible live experience for UFC events.
The promotion’s CEO will now look to bring the same level of production quality to boxing when promoting Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford later this year.
In order to get to where the promotion is now at, there were times when the UFC had to adapt in order to become such a well-oiled machine.
On this day in 2010, one of the biggest UFC events of all time took place in Las Vegas where Brock Lesnar defeated Shane Carwin to retain the heavyweight title.
Ahead of the event, the promotion somewhat bizarrely addressed a potential issue regarding the live event, with White making his feelings on the matter very clear.
- READ MORE: Dana White labelled iconic UFC event the ‘best night’ of his career and bowed down to the fighters
Dana White banned ‘horrific’ vuvuzelas from UFC 116 following the 2010 World Cup
While the FIFA World Cup might not be an event that you’d necessarily expect to impact the UFC in any significant way, this was the case in 2010.
The tournament held in South Africa may be best remembered for Andres Iniesta’s winning goal for Spain in the final, but that’s not what caused the UFC to react ahead of UFC 116 on July 3.
In a press release from the promotion, the UFC announced that they would be banning vuvuzelas from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The incredibly loud and monotone horns were a prominent and irritating feature of the 2010 World Cup, which led to FIFA banning them from future major tournaments.
In the UFC’s announcement that vuvuzelas would not be allowed at UFC 116, Dana White claimed that he’d rather take a punch from the promotion’s heavyweight champion rather than listening to the “horrific” sound that they produce.
While vuvuzelas weren’t a prominent item at MMA events before this, it appears that the UFC made the call that it was better to be safe than sorry.
“This decision was pretty simple for me,” White was quoted as saying. “Vuvuzelas make the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard. I’d rather let Brock [Lesnar] punch me in the face than hear 15,000 people blow on those things. This is the biggest heavyweight fight we’ve ever done. We’ll make enough noise this weekend when Brock and Shane [Carwin] finally step inside the Octagon.”
UFC 116 exceeded Dana White’s expectations with or without vuvuzelas
With the vuvuzelas out of the picture, UFC 116 took place on July 3 of 2010 and ended up producing an iconic event.
Dana White claimed that it was the ‘best night’ of his UFC career after the entire card delivered, with some remarkable highlights and back and forth battles.
Six fighters ended up leaving Las Vegas with a $75,000 bonus with Brock Lesnar receiving submission of the night, Gerald Harris winning knockout of the night and two fight of the night bonuses being awarded.
Before Conor McGregor came along and took over the list of the UFC’s best-performing PPV events, UFC 116 was high up on the list as Lesnar continued to bring new eyes to the sport.