‘Unreal’ Or ‘Uninspired?’

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

Check out some of the most amazing visuals from UFC 306 at the Sphere, and fans’ reaction to them live and on television. After months of anticipation and speculation, we finally got to wi…


UFC 306 at Riyadh Season Noche UFC
Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

Check out some of the most amazing visuals from UFC 306 at the Sphere, and fans’ reaction to them live and on television.

After months of anticipation and speculation, we finally got to witness Riyadh Season Noche UFC aka UFC 306 at the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. And how did people react to the $20+ million production? For the most part, people were pretty blown away — once the main card started, at least.

Staging the first sporting event at the Sphere was always going to be tricky. You can’t just blast mind bending visuals at people for the entire time like you can at a U2 or Phish concert. For the majority of the event, there are going to be fights that people need to focus on. The UFC needed to figure out how to both utilize the Sphere’s unique capabilities while also not taking away from those fights. And we think they hit that balance pretty well.

Visuals were split up into mini-movies focused on Mexico’s history and ‘worlds’ which were used kinda like backgrounds to Street Fighter 2 levels. There was the Mayan temple level, the cage level, the Mexican villa. Each world slotted into the background with two screen cutouts for video feeds of the pre-roll video packages and camera feeds.

The videos and worlds were underwhelming early on in the event, but things quickly entered ‘Holy Shit’ territory once the main pay-per-view started. They clearly put most of the work into the final half of the card. While the fight worlds featured during the prelim were a bit janky and lazy looking, the pay-per-view fight worlds were all fully flushed out and beautiful.

Most of the reaction from fans in attendance has been extremely positive. Those watching at home were also wowed by the movies, but less impressed with being forced to watch wide shots of the video screens in the Sphere playing pre-fight video packages, which made them hard to see.

But those are nitpicks in the larger scheme of things. The UFC tried something bold and different tonight at UFC 306, and succeeded in delivering a unique night of fights that will be remembered for years to come.

Take a look at some of the highlights and reactions from fans below:

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 306: “O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.