Following UFC 305 in Perth, Australia, on Saturday, UFC executive Dave Shaw met the media to talk about the event and other UFC news.
Shaw breaks down plenty of upcoming UFC international potential and more below.
Support
First, I want to just say a quick thanks to the government of Western Australia, through Tourism Western Australia, who were instrumental in the partnership this week to bring UFC 3O5 to Perth once again. I also want to say thank you to the Western Australian Premier Roger Cook and the deputy Premier Minister for tourism, Rita Saffioti, who were not only here today, but they were at the open workouts, they were at the weigh-ins. There was support from their teams and them as individuals all week, which is excellent. And then lastly, just in terms of the thanks to the Western Australian Combat Sports Commission led by Anthony Grover, (we had) another successful event at in Perth.
Technicalities
The gate today was $5,477,097 USD. The attendance was 14,152 – sold out, slightly larger attendance than the last time we were here. The Fight of the Night, I’m sure no surprises here: (Mateusz) Gamrot and (Dan) Hooker, and the performance bonuses went to Kai Kara-France and Carlos Prates. It was the highest grossing event that we’ve had at the RAC Arena and topped all merch records that we’ve had in this country for the arena shows that we’ve done.
The Perth crowd
My perspective, actually, was not too dissimilar to the last time we were here. I think people were shocked at how early it was – 5:30 (a.m.) doors, people were lined up outside, full-strength beers right away I think. By the first fight, we had over 5,000 people in despite how horrific the weather was outside for a few hours this morning. The event had ups and downs, but generally (it was) this trajectory upwards, and I think those last three fights of the main card delivered. The co-main event and the main event were both excellent. The Hooker (fight) was excellent. It was really nice being back in Perth. I mentioned when we’re in Abu Dhabi few weeks ago, the support that you get when you’ve got a partnership like this with the government – and it felt this week, not only because of the (Australia vs. South Africa rugby), but because of (UFC) 305. There was a great buzz in the city, and we’re proud to be part of it.
On renewing a deal to keep bringing cards to Perth
Yes, 100 percent, (we’re interested). … There’s general interest in speaking to some of our partners, some of the government representatives over the course of this week, what’s clear is that they want Perth to be an international destination for all types of events. Coldplay was here, the rugby was here, we’re coming back. They want WWE back here. So to be a part of that. It’s really important for us, and yes, the conversations will continue.
Would the UFC ever do a combo show with WWE?
That’s a good question. I think in terms of of the kind of combined product, we could absolutely have a TKO weekend here. They were at Optus (Stadium) last time. We’re going to stay at RAC. We’re not going to go and and do a stadium event, so it could make sense, and the way that the WWE guys have built their kind of program schedule is you get multiple events. So maybe there’s something they want to do within Australia for ‘Smackdown’ or WWE ‘Raw’ and NXT event, etc. But for us, our singular focus is to get back to Australia at some point soon or some point early in 2025.
On a future return to New Zealand
I wish I had an answer for you. We had some people come over from Auckland today to speak to us, talk a bit about our next trip to New Zealand. I don’t have an answer. It’s always on the priority list. It’s always something that we’re reviewing. It’s a real non-answer for you, but this is one of those situations where we’d love to get back to Auckland. The other thing that I think you probably see on social (media) is the Kiwi fighters are are extremely vocal with Dana (White) and Hunter (Campbell) and Sean (Shelby) and Mick (Maynard) about coming back to the U.K. So that’s going to play a major role in the decision, I’m sure, too.
On the 30-27 score in Tai Tuivasa’s loss
(The broadcast team) probably spoke to Dave Lewis. But don’t forget that the Western Australian Combat Sports Commission – they’re the lead committee here, so they are responsible for those decisions. And I guess someone made the call on the performance was probably not worth keeping them involved for the rest of the night. It’s good checks and balances. I think everyone needs to be held to a high standard. It doesn’t matter – if I don’t do my job or you don’t do your job, maybe it’s good to sit on the bench for a while and reconsider the work, try to figure out how to get back on track and do a better job next time. I think just generally in life, it’s a decent principle. But it’s not for me to say whether it was right or wrong for the commission.
On the UFC returning to Canada
At least (twice a year, we want to be in Canada). Canada is such an important market for us for a number of reasons. I mean, still one of the. Your contributors to our our overall revenue, I mean the relationship we’ve got with sports net now has been great since the beginning of this year and our pay-per-view business is as strong as it’s been in a long time. So yes, at least at least two.
On Africa potential
I think we’re probably closer than we’ve been in a while, and there’s significant interest from a few different countries. The Dricus (Du Plessis) situation is tough. I mean, he’s a champion. Are we going to take a pay-per-view there at the same time zone as the U.K.? We’ve just done the Manchester event, so it’s absolutely possible. But we also want to make a good first impression, right? So if we’re coming to continental Africa for the first time, do we want to do an event in the middle of the night? And there’s financial considerations. If it’s a pay-per-view event that we’re taking to South Africa or another country, what does the gate look like and how does that compare to the alternative location for that pay-per-view event? One thing that’s clear, I think back to Manchester, is if Dana (White) wants to do an event for the fans, for the growth of the sport, despite headwinds or challenges operationally on where the event is and what time it’s going to have to be booked, then you know he’s going to make that decision to do so. The short answer is that we’ve got a few different countries that we are targeting – nothing to report right now. But this is definitely a 2025 thing. We don’t wait much longer.
On doing events in non-roofed stadiums
We’ve done five, I think, stadium events in our history. Two of them been in (Australia). I think Curitiba (Brazil) was sort of like an indoor-outdoor, but generally we’ve done stadium events that have roofs on. We don’t want to take on the risk of weather. The production costs would be tremendously large if we had to deal with weather. And then you’ve got the situation of the risk of having a real negative impact on the field of play. If that octagon gets wet because of rain, if our equipment gets wet, it just doesn’t work out. On the WWE side, they’re probably more aligned with the stadium event because of the stage presence. The production is just different than ours. If we had set up an event for Saturday night last night and we had that weather, it would have been a complete disaster. So we’re just going to make the decision not to go to a stadium that does not have a roof on it.
His favorite UFC 305 moment
Oh God – the Hooker fight. It was unbelievable. There was a moment after the second – you guys probably all saw this moment after the second where he got cleaned up. Everything was good and he couldn’t get off his chair fast enough to get back to the center of the octagon because he wanted to fight so badly. It was great. It was unbelievable.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
