The UFC won a pair of Sports Emmy awards for their incredible production at UFC 306 — the promotion’s annual Noche UFC event.
The card took place this past September at Sphere in Las Vegas, and was capped off by Merab Dvalishvili’s bantamweight championship victory over Sean O’Malley in the main event. While the fighters were a big story, it was the wild visuals that stole the show, and because of that, the UFC won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Studio or Production Design/Art Direction, and Graphic Design – Specialty.
Following the memorable event, UFC CEO Dana White believed the production should net an Emmy, or major award.
“Listen, I talked a lot of shit for a lot of years about boxing and Showtime,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I always like to push the envelope and make it better. When new technology comes out, we try to raise the bar because I think it should be. What these guys pulled off, we should be stepping over Emmys at the office.”
This year’s awards show marked the 46th annual production, which salutes the very best in sports television in media throughout the previous year, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.