Canelo Alvarez first fought in Las Vegas in 2010 when he was just 19 years old. Since then, Alvarez has become a superstar in the main events of big Mexican fan weekends, namely Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day on September 16.
The Jalisco native will once again headline a fight card over Mexico’s Independence Day weekend at T-Mobile Arena, the same venue where UFC president Dana White had hoped to host a UFC night.
White requested the same T-Mobile Arena as Alvarez’s fight venue for Saturday’s event to celebrate the “Mexican fighting spirit.” White said he has no desire to face Alvarez head-to-head, but he is determined to set his own card on one of the two days the Mexican boxer hosts bouts in Las Vegas, and he plans to host a rival bout night at the Sphere on Saturday.
“I understand Canelo and other great Mexican boxers have had these dates set for years, but it’s two dates … there’s Cinco de Mayo and there’s Independence Day, you know? I’m going to pick one of them. That’s it,” White said in an interview with the LA Times en Español.
This won’t be the first time UFC and Canelo have faced off on the same night. In 2019, Canelo faced Sergey Kovalev at the MGM Garden Grove Arena in Las Vegas, but the main event was postponed by just over an hour due to a decision by DAZN. Fans eager to see Canelo’s bout were able to watch UFC 244, featuring Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, on the big screen at Madison Square Garden in New York.
At a July press conference, White expressed frustration that he wasn’t able to book the T-Mobile Arena when Alvarez was able to, but White said the problem was with MGM, which operates the venue, not Alvarez’s team.
“I’m not mad at Canelo or (Al) Haymon or anybody. I’m mad at the guys that run the arenas,” White said. “They don’t have the integrity to call us and say, ‘Hey, these guys are going to have a fight on this date, and they’re going to do this.’ It’s about respect for them. It’s not even an issue, it’s the reality.”
White then shifted his focus to taking advantage of all the multimedia opportunities at the Sphere, a venue known for its ability to display lights and other digital elements above and around audience members to create an immersive experience.
The UFC 306 fight card, which will feature a number of Mexican fighters, is expected to cost more than $20 million and promises to be a unique event, White said.
“I’m not upset, believe me. I’ve been working on these issues for over 20 years and I’m actually glad this happened. It’s perfect because that’s what got us here in the first place,” White said.
White was inspired to bring UFC to the Sphere after seeing a U2 concert, and after the show he called UFC vice president Craig Borsari and told him they needed to visit the venue because he was sure the rest of the team would love it.
Borsari immediately got to work on production and logistics.
UFC had to think about how to create the ideal visual effects, where to place the Octagon, lighting, sound, how to execute transitions between bouts, etc. To make the most of the Sphere, which features 160,000 square feet of screens around the ring and a 16,000 x 16,000 resolution (the highest resolution LED screen in the world), Borsari worked with Mexican director Carlos Lopez Estrada.
“We went through a process of finding the right director for this project and we spoke to a lot of groups, a lot of directors, but Carlos and Valerie Bush stood out as people who were really passionate about this project,” Borsari said. “They clearly had the talent and experience to be able to produce high-level content.”
The evening will feature the screening of “For Mexico, For All Time”, a six-part film about Mexico’s past, present and future, narrated by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal.
“When we presented the project to him, he was very intrigued. Gael immediately understood the purpose of the film and with his background and talent, we knew he was the right fit,” Estrada said. “He loves sports and his latest project is also about boxing. They made it clear they wanted to reflect the feel of Mexican culture and I think we’ve been able to achieve that. It’s going to be an amazing experience.”
The Sphere’s structure required UFC to change how it projects light into the Octagon and find the ideal placement.
They designed a three-dimensional model of the octagon to determine the optimal location.
“Every seat, every line on the sidelines, everything had to be designed in the model and then the octagon was laid out on the floor so that you could see what the stage looked like from each seat,” Borsari said. “Every detail has been really thought out and there are a lot of new things, but the fighters will feel the same way they always do during the match. The lights will come in from different angles, but it’s the same as always, so they won’t feel much of a change of scenery.”
After exploring dozens of options using the model, the next step was to build and test the octagon.
White banned photography inside the venue until the day of the match.
“In May, we erected it where we thought the octagon should be, walked around the building and sat in different positions to get the angles, and found that we needed to move it back about 16 inches, which was the ideal position,” Borsari said.
White is hoping it will be an unforgettable night for fans and help launch UFC’s Las Vegas residency in Mexico.
“We want it to be a sensory-explosive evening where people take away something they’ve never experienced before,” White said.
This article was first published in Spanish by LA Times en Español.
