UFC 306 Report: Did Sphere lead to the greatest live sporting event of all-time?

UFC 306 is in the books and there are two new champions atop the UFC. In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko reclaimed the flyweight title and ended her rivalry with Alexa Grasso, winning a dominant decision. Then in the main event, Merab Dvalishvili avenged his friend Aljamain Sterling, putting on a vintage performance and out-working Sean O’Malley to claim the bantamweight title.

But the real star of the show on Saturday night was Sphere in Las Vegas, as the UFC pulled out all the stops to provide a once-in-a-lifetime experience for viewers in the promotion’s “love letter to Mexico.” So with an event with so much to talk about, let’s gather the MMA Fighting brain trust to discuss everything that happened.

1. What is your review of UFC 306? Did the Sphere live up to the hype?

Heck: As we put a bow on the festivities, the takeaways are more spectacle than in-cage action. Not trying to take anything away from new champs Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko, because they did the damn thing and won their fights, but neither are ones we’ll voluntarily go back and watch again. What we will re-watch — and show our friends and family members who aren’t UFC fans — is the exSphereience of it all. The movies, the graphics, the main card open, the production values the UFC worked so hard on. The event was a bit of a slog as a whole, especially down the stretch, but I’d love to see them try again.

Martin: Yes and no. On a positive note, it was great to see the UFC try something totally different and new. Outside of the fights themselves and the crowds from certain cities or countries bringing a lot of energy, every major UFC pay-per-view pretty much always looks the same. So seeing all the pomp and circumstance used to build up this card was pretty cool. That said, Sphere is ultimately a visual experience that works best if you’re in the arena. Think of it like watching videos of your favorite band on YouTube — it’s still cool but it just doesn’t compare to actually being there in person. Add to that, the card wasn’t ultra stacked and five main card fights all going to decision with the show not ending until nearly 2 a.m. ET wasn’t ideal.

Lee: No, because how could it?

Uncle Dana promised everyone the greatest sporting event in the history of sports, and I can’t imagine anyone sincerely believing that it came close to that mark even if you had the best seat in the house. What you got were mostly cool and well-intentioned short films dedicated to celebrating Mexican heritage, some sick-looking backdrops for the main card fights, big audio that would shake you down to your butt, and chair tech that would literally shake your butt with every strike (or so I’m told).

For those of us watching remotely, there was no way to fully appreciate it, despite the broadcast team doing their very best to show the Sphere off. Our first glimpse of the famed wall was the UFC using it to simulate scaffolding for the preliminary portion of the show. That’s not great.

I trust everyone involved did their best to make UFC 306’s production one for the ages, but there’s only so much you can do for the millions of us tuning in at home from the comfort of our decidedly non-butt-shaking chairs.

Meshew: UFC 306 was solid if underwhelming, but I was pleasantly surprised with the production.

For years we’ve asked the UFC to break away from its monochromatic way of doing things, from bland uniforms to the same old production 42 times a year. And while Sphere maybe didn’t reach the lofty goals Dana White set for it, there was some undeniably cool stuff going on, even for the at-home viewers. The vignettes between fights, the octagon girls, the drone shots and backgrounds, all were new and interesting and while everything wasn’t to my taste, I commend them for trying not just something new, but to try and communicate a broader story. It was fun, and I hope they do more of this in the future.

2. What was the best part of the evening?

Heck: While I put over the production, the best thing on the card was Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zellhuber. Holy hell, Batman! Those two guys understood the damn assignment, and delivered this generation’s Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi. Incredible will, skill, heart, and granite chins were shown by both, as Ribovics and Zellhuber displayed the overall spirit of what this card was designed to represent. This ruled, and if there’s one fight to go out of your way to watch if you missed UFC 306, it’s this one. Lightweight is the best.

Lee: Years from now, when I’m looking back at this pay-per-view, somehow despite all the Sphere’s bells and whistles, and a pair of title fight results that could have long-lasting repercussions for the UFC, what I’ll remember most is two unranked lightweights giving each other the business for three rounds, with five minutes in particular standing out.

Saturday’s undercard was lambasted by some fans for lacking star power, but it’s fights like these that create stars. More than any movie that was played on the screen, Ribovics and Zellhuber gave us pure cinema (or CineMMA, if you will).

Meshew: I hate to double dip, but I’m going to go with the whole Sphere thing. Ribovics vs. Zellhuber is very possibly the Fight of the Year at this point, so I don’t begrudge anyone for picking that, but when I look back at UFC 306, the first thing that will come to mind is Sphere and the UFC taking such a big swing. Because under normal circumstances, that card might have been dreadful. 10 fights felt like 10 hours, and it went super late, but I still somehow never felt that bogged down, mostly because the newness of Sphere and all the surrounding parts kept me engaged and interested, trying to take it all in. Again, not all of it worked, but it was all interesting and really was the star of the show.

Martin: It wasn’t the most exciting fight in history but watching Merab Dvalishvili finally ascend to the top of the bantamweight division was pretty special. Nothing got handed to this guy and I’d argue that he was forced to work that much harder to get in that position thanks to his wrestling heavy style and refusal to even entertain a potential fight against Aljamain Sterling when he was champion — a declaration that Dana White openly criticized. Dvalishvili ultimately had to win 10 consecutive fights including wins over three former champions — Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo — to finally get his title shot with the likely understanding that he would never get another one if he lost. So Dvalishvili made the most of his moment and now he can celebrate as the new UFC champion.

3. What was your least favorite part of the evening?

Meshew: Unfortunately, it was the final two fights of the evening.

Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko picked up dominant, meaningful, professional wins on Saturday night. They won titles and got two paychecks and that is 100 percent the most important thing. I have tremendous respect for what they accomplished at UFC 306, and I’m even happy they both won as I’m fans of both. But those fights were tough hangs.

Up until the co-main event, the fights had almost all been electric and the vibes were sky high. Then Shevchenko hossed Grasso around for 25 minutes and broke her will and the energy just got drained out of the card. And then Merab did the same in the main event and so this grand spectacle just sort of ended, instead of having a grand finale. Paradoxically, the two most important things that happened were also the worst parts of the show.

But also, special shoutout to the irony of a show celebrating Mexican Independence being sponsored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Satire is truly dead.

Lee: Some unfortunate soul on the UFC broadcast team mistaking Bud Crawford for Kendrick Lamar was ROUGH.

Look, I’m aware that Kendrick directly referenced Bud on Euphoria earlier this year and, sure, great bar, but there’s no excuse for whatever happened here. We need to do better as a society.

Heck: AK might be right here. The graphics department had a tough go of things. Not only with what he mentioned about the Kendrick Lamar flub up, but there were so many inaccuracies with fight cards — mostly from UFC 309 putting Natalia Silva vs. Viviane Araujo on there (it’s Karine Silva), and also just casually throwing Anthony Smith vs. Dominick Reyes on that card when it’s happening at UFC 310. Not everything can be perfect all the time, but I feel like this should be as close to automatic as it gets.

Martin: Generally speaking, Herb Dean is a great referee but he was getting way too involved in the main event on Saturday. To his credit, he did educate just about everybody in the sport that there’s a rule about excessive coaching when he admonished Sean O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch for talking too much. But then Dean just kept shouting for action and demanding Dvalishvili to do more just seconds after he landed a takedown. Wrestling isn’t for everybody but it’s part of MMA — and it almost seemed like Dean was desperate to get the fight back on the feet as soon as possible. He never actually stood them up but his constant shouting with instructions was a distraction and just felt totally unnecessary.

4. Who was the unsung hero of the evening?

Lee: The biggest of shout-outs have to go to the evening’s octagon girls and whoever was involved in designing their outfits. Simply put: Fabulous!

Here’s a few of the gorgeous costumes that the ladies strutted their stuff in Saturday night.

Being a ring card girl in today’s modern combat sports landscape is typically a thankless job, but everyone should respect the incredible work that went into these outfits meant to celebrate the rich history of the Mexican people. This wasn’t just eye candy for the sake of it, the women and their outfits genuinely enhanced the viewing experience.

So to Ariadna, Ayled, Daniela, Dany, Hannah, Karla, Mariel, Valeria, and the brilliant costumers, we salute you.

Meshew: AK is correct, the winner of Saturday night was whoever did the costume design. I’ve never understood the purpose of octagon girls since the advent of giant screens that tell us things, and so mostly I view them as relics of a bygone era. But on Saturday they stole the show.

Special shoutout to the Dia de Muertos costumes, which were the best, and boo to the “Future of Mexico” ones which were by far the worst.

Heck: Since she’ll likely be forgotten in the fallout, Ketlen Souza did the freaking thing on Saturday, didn’t she? Not only did she deliver an incredible finish of massive favorite Yazmin Jauregui, but selfishly, she also helped deliver a big ol’ goose egg to Shaheen Al-Shatti for his fantasy team, since he selected Jauregui. Well done, Ketlen!

Martin: Craig Borsari — the UFC’s chief content officer and head of production — never heard his name mentioned as much as he did in the days and weeks leading up to UFC 306. He’s actually been with UFC for nearly 20 years and any time Dana White has a crazy idea — like you know, putting on a sporting event at Sphere — it’s Borsari who has to make those fantasies become a reality. Borsari is obviously good at his job, but he had his work cut out for him at UFC 306 and it’s safe to say he pulled it off.

5. What is your biggest question coming out of the event?

Heck: Will the UFC continue to take big swings, and maybe more importantly, continue to try and have more fun with these events? Between this, and UFC 300, there was more effort put in than we’ve seen in a long time. Look, the UFC has lapped the competition probably 487 times by now. They are so far ahead of everybody else that it’s pretty laughable. But when the UFC goes outside of their business-as-usual bubble, it gives us a little bit of hope. Ice cream is delicious by itself, but throw some hot fudge, whipped cream, some chocolate sprinkles and a cherry on top, it’s just better. The more proverbial sundaes, the better.

Martin: Where does Sean O’Malley go from here?

There’s no doubt he’ll remain one of the biggest stars on the entire UFC roster but a fairly lopsided loss puts him at a crossroads as far as what comes next. If O’Malley really wants to get back to title contention, he’ll rest up, recover and then start calling for a fight against another top-ranked bantamweight — a showdown against Cory Sandhagen makes a lot of sense. But if O’Malley cares more about fame and fortune, he might demand an immediate rematch or just sit out for an extended period of time to wait for a marquee matchup that also comes with a hefty payday. Remember after Conor McGregor got thumped by Khabib Nurmagomedov, he wasn’t seen again for 15 months — O’Malley should avoid that kind of scenario at all costs.

Lee: Is Valentina Shevchenko poised for another lengthy title run?

Heading into UFC 306, I picked Alexa Grasso to be victorious in the trilogy bout, and my intentions were somewhat selfish as I wanted to see Shevchenko return to 135 pounds and test the waters there. Now that Shevchenko proved once again that she’s the true queen of the flyweights, it’s entirely possible she adds a few more title belt rubies to her collection.

Women’s 125 is full of intriguing challengers, including presumed next-one-up Manon Fiorot, red hot Brazilian striker Natalia Silva, a resurgent Maycee Barber, plus Erin Blanchfield and former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, who fight each other this November. The two-time champ has options, all of whom she’d likely be favored against.

Getting to the top is hard, staying there for a long time is damn near impossible, and doing it all again? Legendary.

Meshew: I’m with Mike on this one: will the success of this event inspire the UFC to try cooler things moving forward?

At the post-fight press conference, Dana White said he is always willing to try and jump on cool ideas but that’s not really true. Occasionally if there is something massive and new, he has the business sense to try to associate with that, but there’s a difference between being an early adopter of a new trend, and setting one yourself.

At this point, the UFC is too big to fail. They own MMA and there’s no real way they can lose that. That should afford them the freedom to try new things and have fun, and instead they are largely content to maintain the status quo. Will this event being incredibly popular get White and company to maybe try more themed events moving forward or just take smaller swings on different production flourishes. We’ll see, but I certainly hope so.

6. Where does UFC 306 rank among the 2024 pay-per-views?

Lee: There have been some absolute bangers in 2024 (UFC 299, UFC 300, UFC 305), but also your fair share of forgettable cards, and I see UFC 306 as slotting in just above the latter pile.

As far as I’m concerned, the Sphere gimmickry alone served to separate Saturday’s event from the pack, even if the action at the top of the card didn’t deliver. Fair or not, UFC pay-per-views are often judged by how the finish, and not how they start, and few will ever re-watch the lopsided title fights we ended up with. But the first two fights of the main card were great, there was plenty of fun to be had on the preliminaries, and at the very least we escaped the card without any major controversies. That’s a win in my books.

That said, there’s a loaded UFC 307 lineup just around the corner, and the next three months show plenty of promise (Topuria vs. Holloway! Jon Jones is back?!?), so don’t be surprised if UFC 306 is pushed closer to the lower half of the rankings come Christmas.

Meshew: It’s the third-best card of the year.

UFC 300 is the greatest MMA card of all-time. It looked like it might be that on paper and then the thing went out and delivered on it. It was a once in a generation event that may not be topped in my lifetime, AND it even had some cool extra promotional touches. 100 out of 10.

UFC 299 was elite MMA. An extremely good card on paper that lived up to the hype, but didn’t have the same otherworldly oomph of UFC 300. But in most years, 299 is the best card of the year.

UFC 306 is behind those two, but ahead of everything else. Sure, the two top fights were underwhelming, but they were high-level MMA with extreme stakes and storylines attached, so they weren’t bad (just the worst part of an otherwise excellent night) and the rest of the card was great. So when you add in the spectacle of Sphere and everything along with it, this is an event that we will talk about and remember for a long time to come.

Heck: Tough question, because it’s almost impossible to ignore the spectacle side of things because we’ll remember that for years to come. So I’m going to try to take that out of the equation and pretend this card happened at T-Mobile Arena. UFC 306 was a bottom-half ranked pay-per-view, at best.

UFC 297 was the worst, no question about it. UFC 302 was a sloggy slog slog, but the main event between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier delivered one of the best fights of the year, and gave us a lot to talk about. UFC 301 had very little to hang your hat on in terms of star power, but in a vacuum, it was a fun card to watch, plus it ended with a very competitive and entertaining main event. UFC 306 is mixed in with those, and while it may not have been the worst of the year, but it was far away from being the best. Add the spectacle part back in, it becomes a bottom-of-the-tier-list event, well below the UFC 300, UFC 299, UFC 298 cards.

Martin: When it comes to the fights, UFC 306 delivered some incredible action early and then lopsided results in the main and co-main events — with both delivering less than spectacular action across 10 total rounds in the octagon. Like it or not, that’s almost always the biggest memory we take away from any card because as much as Esteban Ribovics and Daniel Zellhuber deserve their flowers, the crowd in the arena and the folks watching at home were all hoping for similar out of O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili or Grasso vs. Shevchenko 3. The visuals in Sphere were spectacular but that was undoubtedly a much cooler experience for those in the arena versus the audience (including me) at home. So overall, UFC 306 was very middle of the road but nowhere close to the top show of the year, which remains UFC 300 and that’s going to be awfully hard to top.