Is the historic UFC 306 event at the Sphere failing? A dive into the current state of the most expensive combat sports event of all time

On September 14, the UFC will host their biggest event ever and the most expensive combat sports event of all time when UFC 306 lands at the Sphere in Las Vegas, the first combat sports event to take place at the unique venue.

As soon as it was announced that the event would take place at the Sphere, hype for the event quickly increased, so expectations were naturally extremely high.

However, despite expectations, there are several factors that can hinder the event and make it a failure. Let's take a look at the current status of the event and the factors surrounding it.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

UFC 306 is set to compete with a major boxing event headlined by Canelo Alvarez

One of the biggest talking points heading into September 14 is that UFC 306 will rival a major boxing event at T-Mobile Arena, headlined by Mexico's biggest star, Canelo Alvarez.

While UFC CEO Dana White has stated that he is not concerned about the clash of events, I think there is probably at least some cause for concern.

With both events taking place over Mexican Independence Day weekend, there will be a lot of eyes on Canelo as he is the country's biggest star, and out of everyone competing in both events, he is the most recognized name.

Something I imagine the UFC is banking on is that the more casual part of the combat sports fanbase would choose to pay for their PPV before the boxing PPV, due to the Sphere's machinations.

I've said here that UFC noche is going to do bigger numbers than Canelo, but this definitely sounds like Dana is making excuses to soften the landing. pic.twitter.com/UslAfGn7ta

— EZ RAW Brunch Boxing (@EzRawBoxing) August 28, 2024

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That said, with Canelo being a significantly bigger name and fighting on a big day in his country's history, I would imagine the boxing event will outperform the UFC in terms of PPV buys.

This isn't the first time the UFC has gone head-to-head with a boxing event headlined by the Mexican star, as in 2019 UFC 244 headlined by Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal competed with a boxing event headlined by Canelo and Sergey Kovalev.

At the time, Canelo and Kovalev's fight was postponed because they didn't want to compete directly with the UFC BMF title fight, but that won't happen this time.

Ticket sales for UFC 306 apparently haven't gone as well as expected

With Dana White recently revealing that the event cost over $20 million to create, ticket prices are, as expected, absolutely exorbitant.

When tickets initially went on sale, the cheapest ticket cost a whopping $3,000 due to limited seating in the Sphere. Despite this, probably due to the initial struggle to shift such expensive tickets, they have lowered the prices and the current cheapest ticket costs $757.

While there are still plenty of tickets available, the most likely reason is the price, so it can't be said that this is completely indicative of the event and how successful it will be, but it is certainly a factor in why it might not performs as well as the promotion hopes.

The UFC 306 fight card isn't as strong as people initially hoped

Outside of Conor McGregor, the event is headlined by arguably the UFC's next biggest star, Sean O'Malley, as he defends his 135-pound title against Merab Dvalishvili.

Despite being a very intriguing fight for MMA fans and having a name that transcends the sport, the rest of the fight card isn't very strong at all and is quite shockingly put together.

The co-main event sees Mexican star Alexa Grasso defend her title against Valentina Shevchenko in a history-making trilogy, but compared to Canelo, her star power is incomparable.

There are only 10 fights on the entire card, while the UFC PPVs typically consist of around 13-15 fights. Outside of the main event and co-main event, there are only four ranked fighters on the entire card, and two of those are women's bantamweight, which is considered the weakest division in the sport.

It seems like the promotion is leaning too heavily on the event at the Sphere, and they're relying on that factor to provide the majority of the success, but you still have to put together a solid fight card, which in reality this isn't.

White has spoken openly about the effort it takes to pull off an event like this and a dedicated production team of extremely talented people has been assembled to work on it. Somehow they'll have to make it a unique viewing experience for people watching at home, and any production mishaps will greatly impact the experience.

Ultimately, I think this event will ultimately be successful, but they need to knock it out of the park considering how much White and co hyped it up.

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