Has UFC burned Las Vegas for numbered shows?

UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena has some rough ticket sales.

Has Las Vegas lost that lovin’ feeling for the UFC?

A combination of really expensive ticket prices, major last-minute fight cancellations (see: Conor McGregor), and an onslaught of UFC APEX warehouse shows has definitely taken its toll on the UFC’s ability to automatically draw sell-out crowds in Las Vegas for standard numbered pay-per-view events.

UFC 310, which has the kind some of the old hardcore appeal that the old PRIDE Bushido events used to have, is not setting the world on fire at the box office.

The war of words between UFC & MGM during Dana White’s conquest at The Sphere, combined with some very expensive ticket prices, appears to have taken some of the starch out of UFC’s current local appeal in Las Vegas. Throw in some possible signs of economic recession and the 2025 UFC calendar in Las Vegas suddenly looks a little more speculative.

UFC 310 Main Card

• Flyweight title match: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Asakura

• Welterweights: Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Ian Garry

• Heavyweights: Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov

• Featherweights: Bryce Mitchell vs. Kron Gracie

• Featherweights: Nate Landwehr vs. Doo Ho Choi

The most recognizable names on the card — Clay Guida, Chris Weidman, Vicente Luque, Michael Chiesa, Aljamain Sterling, Anthony Smith, and Dominick Reyes — are fighting in underneath bouts.

Whimpering into T-Mobile Arena

Long story short: ticket sales heading into next weekend’s UFC 310 event in Las Vegas are, from our viewpoint, a dog’s breakfast.

According to the most recent ticket information we were able to access on late Saturday night, our analysis of AXS data is this:

UFC 310 will need a nice surge — with perhaps some deep last-minute discounts? — to comfortably get over 10,000 fans in attendance. T-Mobile Arena seats 20,000 for UFC events.

As I noted on Twitter last week, there were already some discounts being promoted for the most expensive seats at UFC 310. However, it wasn’t much of a discount.

The promotion was offering VIP packages for $1,400. Floor seats were going between $1000-$1200. Main sections were going for $755.

Mind you, that’s just the standard ticket price — not included taxes and other “fees.”

We received no push-back at all or any sort of counter-response from industry sources for that November 19th post on sluggish UFC 310 business.

As you might imagine, the story for UFC 310 ticket sales really hasn’t changed all that much in the last week. Tickets are not selling very strongly for UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena. A deep dive into certain seating sections paints an ugly picture.

Floor seats for sections B, C, D, F, G, and H aren’t selling strongly. These are seats with $1000-$1200 ticket prices. Sections C & D have more tickets sold than B, F, G, or H, but… you can buy any ticket you want to on the floor.

Sections 5, 6, 15, and 16 surrounding the floor paints a similar picture. Tickets are being advertised between $755-$1000 in price. Not as many openings as floor seats, but still plenty of seats available.

Then there are the sections across the cage: Sections 4, 7, 14, and 17. This is a mixture of seats between $455-$755 in ticket pricing. There are a lot of $455 seats available.

If the main arena sections have plenty of unsold tickets, what about the cheapest seats? That, too, is a very mixed bag for UFC 310. In sections 103-105, plenty of $155 tickets. Same story for sections 118-120. Areas with $200 tickets like sections 101 & 102 look OK but also have plenty of seats available.

The arena sections with $125 tickets largely are sold out.

Bottom line? It’s going to take a combination of a very aggressive UFC marketing campaign and, in our viewpoint, deep and heavy ticket discounts — or outright papering of the venue — to draw a full house at T-Mobile Arena for UFC 310.

This is not a building that hides empty seats very well on camera. UFC has a great production team but even this event is going to need a lot of help to hide empty seats on camera.

We observed, before UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, that there were empty floor seats for $3800 heading into the day of the show. Despite UFC proclaiming the event as a sellout, you could spot empty seats on the floor and the lower bowl sections if you were paying close attention.

There is no comparison between UFC 309 and UFC 310 as far as ticket sales. None. There’s not much comparison, either, between UFC 310 ticket sales and UFC Fight Night ticket sales for the promotion’s Amalie Arena event in Tampa with Colby Covington. While it doesn’t appear that the show will sell out, the Tampa event has stronger demand than UFC 310 in Las Vegas.

One market is watching very closely, however…

The only buzz for UFC 310, at least digitally, is unsurprisingly in Japan.

Kai Asakura, the RIZIN star who will be headlining UFC 310, has a big following. He really is the biggest, most famous Japanese signing for UFC in many years. If he wins at UFC 310, it will create major marketing opportunities for both Mr. Asakura and UFC in Japan in 2025.

It will also be a major feather in the cap for the RIZIN brand, which could use all the positive publicity it can get in Japan right now — especially after a sponsor recently got sentenced to jail for 10 years and with the whole Oscar De La Hoya/Ryan Garcia drama for Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s NYE event at Saitama Super Arena.

There’s a lot of circus factor, as I like to call it, with Kai Asakura. He’s an incredible talent with a lot of … really interesting people hanging around him, including his brother Mikuru (who is more popular in Japan than Kai) and Breaking Down lightning rod Yuji Mizoguchi. The circus tent will grow in size should Mr. Asakura win at UFC 310.

A photo in the UFC cage with Mr. Asakura could be worth a lot of money and fame to certain individuals. Some very powerful people in Japan will be watching.

But domestically in the Las Vegas scene, AXS data indicates UFC 310 tickets are not selling strongly. It’s an incredibly overpriced ticket with a fight card that few people are aware of or really care about.

The Sphere event, with its $3000 ticket prices and insane inventory of sponsors, really impacted UFC in Las Vegas. The front office spent so much energy promoting that event it seemingly has little left to promote UFC 310.

UFC has more local buzz for — and has spent just as much time promoting — Mikey Musumeci’s upcoming grappling fight on the Thursday before UFC 310 than the T-Mobile Arena event itself.

On a positive note, the weather in Las Vegas looks to be very good for the first week of December. Sunny and clear all week long. Bad weather won’t work as an excuse this time.

If UFC wants to spark a large customer day-of attendance surge for 310, they’re going to need to utilize every tool they have to finish out the year strong in Las Vegas.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.