![Sphere](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.sportico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMAGE_NOCHE-UFC_SPHERE-e1719442684746.jpg?w=1280&h=720&crop=1)
UFC has sold its first-ever event title sponsorship to an offshoot of the Saudi Arabian government, the latest example of Middle Eastern investment into combat sports.
Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season, a state-managed entertainment festival launched in 2019, has reached an agreement to put its name on UFC 306, scheduled for Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas. Riyadh Season Noche UFC, as the event will now be called, is expected to be the first sporting event at the venue.
It’s the latest tie-up between TKO, the parent of both UFC and wrestling’s WWE, and Saudi Arabia. UFC held its first event in the country last week and is slated to return next year. It also has a pre-existing relationship with Riyadh Season. WWE has a 10-year deal to host two events there each year, a relationship that pays the company more than $100 million annually.
Financial specifics of the UFC 306 deal were not released. A representative for UFC declined to comment, and a request sent to the Saudi government wasn’t immediately returned.
While Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season is now the title sponsor, the event is already being marketed as a celebration for Mexican fans. It is near Mexico’s Independence Day, a rerun of last year’s “Noche” event on the same weekend, and will likely feature a number of prominent Mexican fighters. UFC president and CEO Dana White recently said the event will be a “love letter to the Mexican people.”
He’s also said UFC has spent $16 million to put it on. “This will be one of the biggest sporting events of all time,” White said Thursday in an embargoed press release. “What we’re going to pull off at Sphere will never be done again.”
The sponsorship represents the latest effort from the Middle East to intertwine itself with combat sports. ONE Championship and Media City Qatar partnered in June 2023 to put martial arts on display live. The Qatar Investment Authority is an investor in ONE. The Saudi government has also invested heavily in boxing—heavyweight Tyson Fury’s last two bouts have been in Riyadh.
UFC, owned by TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), also has its own ties to the region. It hosted Fight Island, a series of fighting events on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi during the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to host UFC Fight Night there on Aug. 3.
Riyadh Season was announced in 2019 by Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, a government department that regulates entertainment inside the kingdom. The 2023 version of the event is sports heavy, with boxing, snooker, soccer, MMA, tennis and wrestling.
With assistance from Eben Novy-Williams