UFC 306 at The Sphere: UFC Turns Up the Production and Operations Firepower for Historic Pay-Per-View Event Production honors Mexican culture; one-of-a-kind venue challenges operations team By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Thursday, September 12, 2024 - 12:40 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The UFC has adapted and evolved to create memorable broadcasting innovation since the COVID-19 pandemic, including Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and the opening of its Apex facility in 2020, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023, and producing its 300th pay-per-view (PPV) event this past spring. All these moments have led to UFC 306: Noche UFC on Sept. 14, which will be the first sports event in the short yet exhilarating history of Sphere in Las Vegas. The mixed-martial-arts company's biggest production to date is considered a once-in-lifetime opportunity for the production and operations teams and the start of a new era for the company.
UFC 306 will honor Mexican Independence Day and the country's impact on the MMA community. (Photo: Zuffa LLC)
There's a lot of excitement because the entire company has been working hard to be ready to pull off this event, says Craig Borsari, CCO/executive producer, UFC, but now that we're in the final stage of preparation, there's also pressure to complete everything that we want to share with the world. We had limited time to rehearse, so the shift has gone from content creation to how we're going to execute our show.
Quick Drive-Away: Crews Visit Sphere To Plan Creative Elements, Tech Infrastructure After attending a show during U2's short-term residency at the venue that has taken the live-entertainment industry by storm, UFC President/CEO Dana White knew that he wanted to host an event there. Uniting a vision of being the first to produce a sports event there and to pay homage to Mexico's contributions to the MMA community, the marquee main event will take place on the Saturday before Mexican Independence Day Monday, Sept. 16. To make the PPV a love letter to the nation, according to White, Borsari has worked closely with others in the production department and external partners - including Segments Director Carlos L pez Estrada, who provided his talents to such projects as Encanto and Frozen II - to create a stunning narrative honoring Mexican culture.
Carlos oversaw the production of six, 90-second films that will run as our primary storytelling device, says Borsari. We don't want to take away from the elite athletes performing in the Octagon, but, at the same time, we don't want to remove people from this bigger story that we're telling throughout the evening. It was a real balancing act to figure out exactly how much we should lean into unique media content that we're creating as well as cover the fights.
Six separate vignettes were developed for the show by independent artists:
Chapter I: In the Beginning - directed by Joe Sill and Brian Tang, co-produced by Impossible Objects
Chapter II: Early Civilizations - directed by Saad Moosajee, co-produced by Analog Studios
Chapter III: Rituals & Traditions - directed by Paul Nicholls, co-produced by Factory Fifteen)
Chapter IV: Battle for Independence - directed by Diego Huacuja, co-produced by Basa Estudios
Chapter V: Fighters & Heroes - directed by Shynola, co-produced by Nexus Studios
Chapter VI: Mexico Today and Tomorrow - directed by Paul Trillo, co-produced by Factory Fifteen
Borsari was assisted by SVP, Production and Programming, Chris Kartzmark on the overall direction of each piece; by SVP, Global Brand and Creative, Heidi Noland with the event's visual identity and on-screen aesthetic; by SVP, Originals Production, Tucker Greene, who gave input on the six films; and SVP/Coordinating Producer Zach Candito, who's responsible for stitching together the show at the front bench.
Fresh off Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour, Silent House Group has been brought in to produce the in-venue show. Its team includes CEO/Founder Baz Halpin, CCO/Head of Production Linda Gierahn, and President Mark Bracco as producers and Coordinating Producer Vincent Richards.
Heidi Noland (left) and Dana White confer during the planning phase.
Borsari is also leaning heavily on other personnel outside UFCi. Oscars and Emmys director and executive producer Glenn Weiss will direct the entertainment aspect of the show on ESPN, and Segments Producer Valerie Bush will work alongside L pez Estrada. BLINK Inc. President Tom Colbourne as screen content director and BLINK Post Production Supervisor Richard Cullen as screen content producer will get the elements on the massive 160,000-sq.-ft., 16Kx16K-resolution interior LED Media Plane. Also helping will be artist contributor/consultant Jorge Gutierrez, who served as a creative consultant on 2017 Disney hit Coco.
Another wrinkle to this show is worth noting from a technical angle: this will be UFC's first show on ESPN broadcast in 1080p. That aspect alone is a new element to be fleshed out by the operations crew, but adding that to the operations needs for a production in a venue that has never hosted such a production before is a challenge. Luckily, UFC has SVP, Event Production, Tim O'Toole and Director, Technical Operations, Greg Louw, who know how to solve those problems. For this hefty lift, they're rolling in UFC's typical truck, the A and B units of NEP NCP7, for the weigh-in and press conference the night before the fight. The scale of the show also required the A and B units of both NEP EN3 and Denali Summit for production of the fight.
We can't produce our press conference and weigh-in normally out of our event truck, says O'Toole. They're happening in the parking lot [of Sphere], and there's no connectivity between the facility
Most recent headlines
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
03/01/2026
A still from OBEX by Albert Birney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital premieres Wednesday 7 January on RT One and RT Player at 9:35pm
RT will debut a powerful new six-part documentary se...
02/01/2026
Friday 2 January 2026
All episodes of Heated Rivalry will be landing on Sky and...
02/01/2026
Sequins, chat shows, live sporting action, ground-breaking docuseries and brand-new Irish drama to kick off 2026
New Year, New Content Coming Soon across RT
...
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
Your live countdown to 2026 with Inhaler, David Gray, Lyra, Garron Noone, Sharon...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
RT has unveiled an exclusive first look at the new Dancing with the Stars promo...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
UFC 306 at The Sphere: UFC Turns Up the Production and Operations Firepower for Historic Pay-Per-View Event Production honors Mexican culture; one-of-a-kind venue challenges operations team By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
