‘Battle Of The Giants’ Is Bigger, More Expensive Than UFC At The Sphere
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
UFC 306, also known as “Noche UFC,” lived up to the hype — production wise — last Saturday night (Sept. 16, 2024) inside The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dana White’s “love letter to Mexican people” was a feast for the eyes, providing fight fans with a six-chapter story told by amazing visuals spread all over the venue’s massive, over-sized screens.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO is adamant the promotion spent over $20 million to make this one-time spectacle happen in “Sin City,” but there is an even bigger event looming around the corner. That’s according to Professional Fighters (PFL) League co-founder, Donn Davis, who says that not only is the upcoming “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view (PPV) event more intriguing as far as fights are concerned, it will cost him and his crew more money to put on that “Noche UFC" did Dana White.
“I think you have the most interesting men’s fight, and the most interesting women’s fight [of the year],” Davis told the New York Post (via MMA Fighting). “So, first of all, I believe this is the biggest event possible in MMA because of the co-mains, this year in 2024, and that makes it, certainly, the biggest thing for PFL,” he added.
“The UFC is the bigger company, but we’re putting on the bigger event. So this is a big deal for us. Our No. 1 metric is putting on the highest quality MMA fight for fans in the world. We want to show fans that we can put on just as good, or better of a product than anyone else in the world. That’s metric No. 1.
“Metric No. 2, we want to do OK financially, just OK financially. The cost of this fight is astronomical. Dana White talks about his $20 million Sphere event, this is more. Fighters make more, the card here has more big fights coming. This cost to us is more than his cost to the Sphere.”
When asked about Davis’ comments during last night’s Contender Series event, White’s answer was short and sweet.
“I didn’t even know who he was until you said it,” White responded. “Sounds like a good idea. Good for him. Good luck, hope it all works out.”
Much was said about the lack of action in both the main and co-main events at UFC 306 -- which featured Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko dethroning Sean O'Malley and Alexa Grasso from their divisions, respectively -- a lot of the intrigue for the event had to do with what the promotion had up its sleeve, production wise. Despite living up to the hype and seemingly turning a profit, White and Co. have no plans to return to the state-of-the-art venue for another event anytime soon.
As for PFL’s “Battle of the Giants” event — which is set to go down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Oct. 19, 2024 — it will be spearheaded by a massive Heavyweight bout between former UFC 265-pound champion, Francis Ngannou, making his highly-awaited debut for the promotion since signing with them over a year ago. He will be facing off against division champion, Renan Ferreira, who could make up to $2 million for the fight, while “The Predator” is expected to make substantially more.
In the co-main event, Bellator’s women’s Featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg, will battle Larissa Pacheco, while Middleweight king, Johnny Eblen, will defend his belt for the second time against Fabian Edwards. Kicking off the main card will be a Lightweight bout between A.J. McKee and Paul Hughes.
While there is no word on just how much all of the main card fighters command in salary, Davis is adamant that is one of the key aspects that will put the event over the $20 million cost. Interestingly enough, both events are in partnership with Turki Alalshikh.
