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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
14/11/2026
Marcelo Dai's Live Session Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
Artist takes viewers on an immersive journe...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Newest Lenses, Horizon Anamorphic Seminar & Guided Lens Character Experience Highlight Creative Possibilities
At the 2026 Toru CAMERIMAGE Film Festival, ZEISS...
14/11/2026
Sonnet Announces Black Friday Sale on Select Products
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
WHAT: Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a select...
14/11/2026
Berklee Alumni Shine at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards This year's winners included songwriters, engineers, and performers who contributed to acclaimed reco...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
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 
