LOS ANGELES — A sold-out arena on a record-breaking night with a star-studded crowd. A taut, action-packed main event between heated rivals. The upset heard around the world. And a finish that no one could ever recall seeing before.
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Not a bad night if you’re UFC President and CEO Dana White, who couldn’t hide his happiness after Saturday night’s UFC 331 at Crypto.com Arena.
“Tonight was about, as a promoter, as perfect of a night as you could possibly hope for,” White said in an exclusive interview less than an hour after the fights had concluded.
“I mean, just all of it stacked up. You could not have a more perfect evening.”
While it has held shows over the years at Intuit Dome, Honda Center and the Kia Forum, the UFC hasn’t been in downtown Los Angeles since Aug. 4, 2018, for the bantamweight championship rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and former champ Cody Garbrandt.
Eight years later, the UFC featured the flyweight championship rematch between Joshua Van and former champ Alexandre Pantoja. All the hype and trash-talking lived up to the billing as the 125-pounders, with no love lost, went toe-to-toe for 25 minutes.
“Most grudge matches don’t live up to the hype, and that one did,” White said of the main event, which ended with Van retaining his title via unanimous decision. “That one exceeded it. I mean, it’s probably the best fight, or one of the best fights, in the history of that division.”
The hotly contested headliner was the cherry on the sundae Saturday. Some 19,357 fans packed Crypto.com Arena with an announced live gate of $8,228,105, making it the highest-grossing event in the arena’s nearly 27-year history.
The night ended with seven finishes – two particularly eyebrow-raising – and five decisions and one particularly thrilled executive, who spoke in a hallway adorned with some of the arena’s iconic moments, from Kobe Bryant and the NBA champion Lakers to the Kings and the Stanley Cup and innumerable legendary musical acts.
“Means everything to me. It means everything to me,” White said of setting the arena standard. “It’s like, think about how long it took us to get into New York, right? And we’re eight of the top 10 all-time gates in New York, right? In two years, we’ll be 10 of the 10.
“We know what this arena means to people. The biggest acts, from music to entertainment to sports, and we’re number one. Incredible! I love it.”
UFC 331 was the sixth card held in the downtown Los Angeles arena and the first under its Crypto.com banner. Between the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome, Inglewood has hosted three. Anaheim remains the most popular with 10, from 2006 to 2024, and rumors are that it could be on the UFC docket in early 2027.
It helps that Southern California is a quick flight from the UFC’s headquarters in Las Vegas, but White was effusive in his praise for local fight fans.
“I love putting on events in Southern California because the fan base is so rabid and so educated,” he said.
All-time upset
All it took was 12 seconds and one punch for heavyweight Sean Sharaf to upend the combat sports world in one of the unlikeliest upsets in UFC history.
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Gable Steveson, with a 2020 Olympic gold medal and five All-American honors on his résumé, seemed to be making a smooth transition from wrestling to MMA as one of the hottest prospects in the sport.
Enter Sharaf, the 33-year-old Anaheim native and Santa Ana resident who was 0-2 in the UFC with his UFC career likely on the line. The 4-0 Steveson was such a sure shot that he was a 12-to-1 favorite on some sites.
Upsets happen all the time in the UFC, but not of that magnitude and violence. A Sharaf left to the jaw sent Steveson and his unblemished record reeling.
White has often said he is in a certain business, which starts with “holy” and ends in an expletive. When asked if Sharaf’s stunning victory was the holiest of the holies, White said it ranks among the biggest ever.
“I’ve had a few. It’s up there. It’s up there,” White said with a smile. “I mean, when you look at what the odds were for that fight, and for it to end that fast and that decisive? Yeah, it’s a holy (crap) moment.”
Money matters
Sharaf’s historic knockout did not go unrewarded. Sharaf was one of the lower earners on the card, with a $30,000 payout for show and another $30,000 for the win.
But the former Marine was the recipient of a one-time perk known as the Proper Chaos bonus, which had been announced by White in partnership with broadcast partner Paramount+ and its series “MobLand.”
The bonus was $50,000, with White saying he was matching it for a $100,000 payout to Sharaf.
Others earning bonuses:
Van and Pantoja took home $100,000 each for Fight of the Night.
Arman Tsarukyan, whose first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main event solidified him as the next challenger for Justin Gaethje’s lightweight crown, received $100,000 for Performance of the Night.
Flyweight Casey O’Neill also took home $100,000 for her spectacular Performance of the Night armbar submission of Eduarda Moura. Mounted late in the first round, O’Neill used her feet on Moura’s hips to flip her up and over and, in the same motion, latched on to one of Moura’s arms, turned on her belly and got the remarkable tapout win.
White confirmed that, in all his years in seeing thousands and thousands of fights, he’d never seen a transition and submission like that. He spoke of seeing a limping O’Neill after the fight.
“I saw her on her way out, and she was just, you know, she was experiencing everything that you shouldn’t be experiencing after something like that,” White said. “Her knee was messed up. I said, ‘You’re going to the hospital.’ She said, “Hospital? I’m going to party. I’m going to celebrate!’ I said, ‘Good for you, kid. Have a great night.’”
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