UFC 306 gets official poster for Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili, hyped Sphere debut
UFC
The countdown to UFC 306 has officially begun.
On Thursday, UFC released its official poster for the much-ballyhooed Sept. 14 event, which features UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defending his belt against No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili in the main event, and UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso facing off against Valentina Shevchenko in a trilogy bout in the co-headliner.
The action all goes down at the Sphere, a state-of-the-art $2.3 billion venue in Las Vegas that features a 160,000 square-foot 16K-resolution wraparound screen inside and generally seats between 18,000 to 20,000 people. Check out the UFC 306 poster below.
Happening soon... @RiyadhSeason #NocheUFC LIVE from @SphereVegas pic.twitter.com/WmzKxuObcg
— UFC (@ufc) August 15, 2024
UFC CEO Dana White has touted UFC 306’s takeover of the Sphere as a one-off, largely due to the pay-per-view event already becoming the most expensive production in promotional history, with more than $17 million already spent. With the cheapest tickets priced in the thousands, TKO Group Holdings chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer said the much-anticipated fight card could end up producing the largest live gate in company history.
Earlier this week, White revealed the first details of UFC’s production plans for a Mexican Independence Day event he’s touted as “a love letter” to Mexican combat sports.
“So what we’ve done, really what we’re going to do on September 14 takes over a year to do. We’re doing it in four months,” White said Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show. “So, when the show starts, we’re going to have the prelims, and then we’re going to tell — throughout the rest of the night — the history of combat in Mexico, from the beginning of time and into the future. So the first fight of the night will start at the beginning of time, the main event will be the future of Mexico. That’s the first time I’ve ever talked about this.”
UFC 306 features a 10-fight card. The entire event lineup can be seen here.
