You could almost hear the relief in Dana White's voice when he sat down at the UFC 306 postfight press conference.
After a months-long lead-up to the UFC's debut event at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday - which White promised would be the greatest show in combat sports history - it was finally over. And the UFC CEO believes it went off without a hitch.
"Literally the whole thing was seamless," White said. "It went perfect. We didn't have a lot of time to rehearse. That was our big worry coming in here. But they nailed it. The team absolutely nailed it. ... It was absolutely amazing."
Merab Dvalishvili defeated Sean O'Malley to become the new bantamweight champion in the main event, though the star of the show was the 160,000-square-foot interior LED backdrop that makes Sphere one of the most groundbreaking and immersive arenas in the world. The event was held in celebration of Mexican Independence Day and boasted incredible CGI scenery and short films that attempted to pay tribute to Mexican culture and combat sports.
White said he believes the production quality was "off the charts."
"The other thing that we accomplished is that it translated well on the television, too," White said. "I feel like people felt like it was a different experience than they get on a normal Saturday night for a UFC event."
From the CGI to haptic seats, White said the UFC left no stone unturned when it came to utilizing all of Sphere's technology.
He said there are also "tons of things" from Saturday's event that will spill over into future UFC productions, such as specific cameras and drones the organization used.
"We did everything that this building is capable of doing," White said. "And some things it's not capable of doing."
Though White considers UFC 306 an overall success, he's adamant he won't be back at Sphere.
"No," White said. "I'm under contract with MGM. So, yeah. I'm under contract. I told you guys leading up to this, the way that this whole thing played out, tonight was meant to happen. So it happened, we did it, we killed it."
He added: "We showed everybody tonight what's possible. You can do more than concerts here and you can pull them off and you can make them great. Who's next?"
