Attendees at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Noche UFC event are surrounded by high-production video programming between bouts at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Sept. 14, 2024. To amplify the first live athletic competition at the Las Vegas landmark, with its more than 700,000 square feet of programmable screens inside and out, the UFC turned to Hollywood. (Mikayla Whitmore/The New York Times)
LAS VEGAS, NEV.- After an animated vignette of conquistadors ransacking Indigenous Mexican temples played on the Sphere’s enormous video screen and the venue’s haptic seats shook violently, two mixed martial arts fighters approached each other on Mexican Independence Day weekend. As they battled in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s caged octagon, birds soared across a backdrop of temple ruins.
The Sphere — a futuristic orb-like structure with more than 700,000 square feet of programmable screens inside and out — has primarily hosted musicians, keynote speakers and filmmakers since opening its radiant gaze upon the Las Vegas Strip in July 2023…