UFC 306, aka Noche UFC, at The Sphere in Las Vegas was an impressive triumph from start to complete – not only by way of the visual spectacle of watching a 160,000-square-foot screen come to life but additionally the fights themselves.
One attendee who was particularly impressed by the MMA showcase was combat sports legend Roy Jones Jr, who explained what the difference is between events placed on by the UFC, and events placed on in boxing.
Roy Jones Jr on the difference between UFC and boxing events
Prior to last weekend, there had been a fierce debate around which PPV would pique the interest of the worldwide combat sports community more; UFC 306 at The Sphere, or Canelo Alvarez’s clash with Edgar Berlanga at T-Mobile Arena.
Whilst each PPVs were highly successful in their very own right, it was the MMA show on the state-of-the-art arena that dominated the headlines – with it also being reported that UFC 306 made $22 million in ticket sales to Canelo’s $17 million.
Former boxing world champion Roy Jones Jr, who attended UFC 306 this past weekend, explained to veteran reporter Kevin Iole what the difference is between shows placed on by the UFC and people hosted by boxing promotions.
“[UFC 306] was out of this world and what was even higher for me was that each fight was a 50/50 fight… Co-main event got upset, the most important event got upset; you don’t come to a UFC fight knowing that anybody’s going to win, that’s not how it really works within the UFC.
“You come there, and also you get what you pay for, and also you get 50/50 fights – you don’t listen to the record, you listen to the fighters… What they understand that boxing doesn’t understand is that styles make fights, not records.”
The legendary four-weight class world champion explained how one in all the problems relating to boxing shows vs MMA shows is that the UFC stacks the deck with way more entertaining, meaningful matchups, whereas boxing card tends to be top-heavy.
“In boxing, we rely strictly on records to make fights, but records don’t make fights – styles make fights… That’s what the UFC understands. They don’t care about your record, they care about who you might be, and what you bring to the table that night and that’s where boxing makes the bad mistake.”
As we’ve seen time and time again within the squared circle, as soon as an undefeated fighter racks up only a few losses, “They throw you out such as you’re no good anymore.
“The goal in boxing needs to be like they do within the UFC [where] their goal is to placed on card, they don’t care what your records are.”
Dana White says other than ‘one glitch’ the UFC killed it at The Sphere
One man who was particularly delighted with how the MMA show played out was UFC President Dana White, who noted that apart from one slight error on the production side, the PPV was a smash hit for the corporate.
“We did what I hoped we could do, the production got here off perfect [and] apart from calling Terance Crawford – Kendrick Lamar, we killed it… That was the one glitch, the one kink within the armor but apart from that, we nailed it.”
The superstar boxer himself would come out to suggest that the gaff was “intentionally done” as a way to generate one other viral moment from the MMA show: “Because how are you going to get us mixed up? But all in all, it was funny to me.”
Back to Dana White, who stated that despite the event coming together under unusual circumstances, he’s already fascinated by how the UFC could top The Sphere next 12 months.
“I’ve got to start out working on Noche for next 12 months, this might be a tentpole event for us from here on out and this whole thing wasn’t speculated to occur – s*** went down and stuff happened, and it resulted on this event.
“When opportunities arise and I see things, I jump on them and take them,” said White with a reasonably smug look on his face.
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