Las Vegas is frequently the epicenter of combat sports.
The desert playpen has been a home for big-time boxing for years and has more recently become familiar turf for the UFC given its occasional arena shows in the center of town and year-round presence at the Apex facility a few miles off the Strip.
But this was a particularly special Saturday night.
Both sides of the combat aisle rolled out the red carpet to celebrate Mexican Independence Day weekend while holding pay-per-view shows barely two miles apart at T-Mobile Arena and the brand-new Sphere facility.
PPV stalwart Canelo Alvarez made his seventh September appearance in Nevada with a super middleweight title defense against Edgar Berlanga, while the UFC 306 show was headlined by a bantamweight bout featuring champion Sean O’Malley and a women’s flyweight title bout between third-time rivals Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko.
It’s the 11th anniversary of Alvarez’s first giant PPV appearance, against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
The prelim portion of the UFC card went live at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed a half-hour later by the first bout on the Alvarez-led boxing main card, while the UFC’s pay-per-view portion began at 10 p.m. ET.
The B/R combat team was ready for all of it and endeavored to produce a real-time definitive list of the winners and losers from both shows. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
