Dana White may not have been in the building for UFC Night, but he was still impressed by how the promotion’s first Mexican Independence Day event went down. “UFC Night was the most-watched Fight Night of all time on ESPN+. 1.1 million unique visits.
“Think about it. It generated 167 million total minutes and tripled the average audience minutes watched on the Spanish broadcast. I kill him. It was an incredible success .”
Headlined by Mexican flyweight champion Alexa Grasso’s first title defense, Noche UFC was a departure from the usual non-pay-per-view UFC event. With a card full of Mexican talent, a production full of cultural flair, and a championship rematch between Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko that turned out to be one of the most entertaining (albeit controversial) fights of the year, Noche UFC was a break in routine for a promotion that has been accused of lacking creativity with its week-to-week schedule.
Boxing has long held major events on Mexican Independence Day with great success, but White promised that September 16 will begin to be a date associated with the UFC as well. “I’ll get that date every year from now on, yes.”
“I will go to that date every [year]. I don’t care if anyone here in town gets the date at [T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas], I’ll go to an opposing arena and face them next year. I will do this for the rest of my reign here. So they can go on the same night, we can face each other, I’m coming. For us, it was a great success.
This was something I’ve been thinking about since the day we bought this company, so we’re finally in the position that I’m all in. All my bets are on Mexico. We are opening the PI, which we have spent millions and millions of dollars on. “We did it, it was huge and we will do it again every year, no matter if boxing goes or not. I will face them every year.”