Saturday Night In Las Vegas UFC Crowned A New Heavyweight Champ, Hosted Celebrities, Dealt With Security Issue
By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
It was a wild night for Las Vegas-based UFC Saturday.
At UFC’s Apex building, which has served as a home venue for UFC fight shows during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were a heavyweight championship fight, a Kardashian sighting, and a soused spectator wandering into Dana White’s press conference all under one roof at UFC 260.
If we’re lucky, it could be the final Pay-Per-View ever inside of the MMA promotion’s Apex venue. Live events inside of sold-out arenas would mean the nation has successfully slowed the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic through a variety of ways, including vaccinations, to the point that mass sports gatherings are possible again.
Even with all of the crazy optics, the night belonged to the newly crowned champion, Francis Ngannou. The 34-year-old Ngannou knocked out defending champion, Stipe Miocic, to earn the UFC heavyweight title at 52 seconds of the second round.
It was a rematch of the Jan. 2018 fight when the Ngannou, a native of Cameroon, was dominated by Miocic, a part-time fire-fighter out of Cleveland, Ohio in their first meeting three years ago at UFC 220.
The win for Ngannou secured his status as the UFC’s third African-born champion, following in the footsteps of Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya.
UFC 260 had elements of pre-2020 cards. There was star power like UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in the corner of his cousin, Abubakar Nurmagomedov, and Usman, in the corner of Ngannaou, plus a VIP section in the venue. Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, Kourtney Kardashian, and her new boyfriend, Blink 182 drummer, Travis Baker, were seated in a booth next to Transformer’s star, Megan Fox, and rapper Machine Gun Kelly.
Then to cap off the fireworks in the arena, a fan wandered past security and staggered into the media room before bizarrely interrupting White’s post-fight press conference. “Hey Dana,” he slurred. “I’m ready to fight for you bro. Right here.”
White, along with media in attendance, quickly pivoted attention to the man as he threw what appeared to be a business card onto the floor. White kept his cool and quipped, “What did he say to me? He’s ready to fight for me? He doesn’t look like he’s in fighting shape. Poor guy.”
After a moment of confusion, he was swarmed and escorted out of the building by security.
UFC’s live events business will be on pause for a week before returning April 10 with a UFC on ABC event headlined by Darren Till and Marvin Vettori’s middleweight match.
With the exception of July, September, and October of 2020 UFC’s APEX facility has been the company’s primary fight venue since the pandemic hit in the first quarter of 2020. It’s been a convenient hub located in an adjacent lot next to the promotion’s home office in Las Vegas. Though it wasn’t ideal, the building was absolutely necessary.
“The Apex is one of the smartest things we’ve done in 20 years,” White said. “Timing is everything in life, and this place was done just in time for a global pandemic.”
“We’re missing the fans big time. You know I hate this,” White said late last year in a UFC video of not allowing fans to watch the fights in person at the APEX. When asked by LVSportsbiz.com if there would be another UFC PPV at Apex this year White he responded, “I hope not.”
The UFC’s next two PPV events will be held in front of a live audience for the first time since the pandemic shut down live sports in March of 2020. UFC 261 will take place in front of 15,000 fans at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on April 24. UFC 262 is scheduled to take place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on May 15.
White explained why he’s taking UFC on the road: “We should be in sold out arenas. Fans packed going crazy and unfortunately we’ll all have to start traveling to all of these cities again. That’s the right thing to do. This is the easy, lazy thing to do. It’s nice, and it was awesome while it lasted, but hopefully this is over.”
There are still two Fight Night events currently scheduled to be held inside of Apex for April 10, and 17. Outside of a select group of celebrities and fighters, fans have not been allowed inside of the building. White did respond to a question by LVSportsbiz.com regarding whether or not those events would be moved.
“We’ve had this debate that’s going on right now at the office with the fight nights. Do we stay here with the fight nights for a while again?” He then stated there would be a meeting on Monday and asked that we call him for the answer then. LVSportsbiz.com will provide a follow-up story at that time. Stay tuned.
