-We move now to the Las Vegas sports economy.

Boxing and UFC went head to head on Mexican Independence Day weekend with Mexican Boxing Superstar Saul Canelo Alvarez fighting at T-Mobile Arena and Noche UFC taking place at the Sphere.

Both events reported sellout crowds, and UFC President Dana White said Noche UFC cost about $20 million to put on.

It was the first ever live sporting event at the state of the art Sphere, a venue that White says he was forced to embrace after learning that Canelo's promoters had already booked T-Mobile.

We spoke with White ahead of Noche UFC.

(Dana White) The Sphere is definitely a one-of-one event.

I wanted to be first.

Nobody has ever done a live sporting event out of the Sphere.

And what was more attractive about that was everybody said it couldn't be done.

Those are the kind of things that I love.

I love when people say something can't be done.

(Amber Renee Dixon) What was the reasoning that they had for it not being possible?

-First of all, the setup.

You know, it's theater-style.

You have the big screen there.

Where would the Octagon go?

You know, we have that big lighting rig that hangs above, 30 years.

In the lighting rig are the lights that light up the octagon.

We have cameras in there, audio, microphones.

All that stuff lives inside.

That's gone.

But what I loved was when I went to see U2, when I was sitting in there, I realized that U2 wasn't the star of the show-- the Sphere was.

So I said, This is fascinating.

How could I pull off a sporting event in here, right, where the Sphere is the star of the show, but I also need the fighters to, you know, people need to focus on the fighters.

Because what you find yourself doing-- like, as soon as this is over, I got a box for the Eagles at the Sphere, right?

And what you do is you're in these seats and you're watching the screen, and you're listening to these songs that you love.

And every once in a while, you peek over and look at the band and whatever, and then you kick back and you start-- and I was, I was blown away by the whole thing.

Like, How the hell could you pull off a sporting event in here?

-You've described this as a love letter to Mexico, a tribute to the Mexican people for their extraordinary contributions to combat sports.

When you think of those contributions, what do you think of?

Who do you think of?

-So all the great fighters.

Some of the baddest dudes on earth have come from Mexico.

So when you look at their their heritage, their culture, there's lots of things that I love about the Mexican people-- how proud they are to be Mexican, how proud they are of where they come from, how hard they work.

They're known as hard workers.

They're known as a certain type of fighter-- move forward, never quit.

And as a kid growing up, you know, white kid from here, I was a big Julio Cesar Chavez fan.

Yeah.

-Will he be honored as part of this?

-You'll see, you'll see.

We're gonna honor everybody, everybody who ever came from Mexico that fought for anything will be honored in this show.

-So Canelo has to be a part of it.

-Mexican independence.

Say who?

-Canelo.

-Canelo is definitely a part of it, 100%.

-And he plays a unique role in that weekend, because you are going up against a Canelo fight in Las Vegas.

What kind of statement, if any, is the UFC trying to make by competing with a Canelo event on Mexican Independence Day weekend in Las Vegas?

-Yeah, I knew there was going to be an event.

You have to assume it's going to be Canelo.

It is what it is.

They're going to do their thing.

We're going to do our thing.

You know, Al Haymon slid in there and stole that date from us, which I got to give him props.

-Our Vegas PBS viewers may not know who Al Haymon is, and I wonder what your description of him would be.

-Al Haymon is a boxing promoter.

And what makes him fascinating as a boxing promoter, right-- so when you think of all the promoters, you know, throughout life, whether it's PT Barnum or it's Vince McMahon or, you know, Arum King, and all these guys, you know who they are.

You've seen them a million times.

Al Haymon is in the shadows.

He's a guy that you've never seen, yet he is one of the biggest fight promoters in the boxing business right now.

And he's very intelligent.

And props to him, he slid in and stole my date at MGM.

But if that didn't happen, I believe that everything happens for a reason.

If that doesn't happen and things don't line up the way they did, I'm not at the Sphere, I'm not first, and a lot of other things.

So this was meant to be; this was meant to happen.

The fact that we're going head to head with him that night, you know, they're going to do the-- MGM is guaranteeing the gate to them.

So they're guaranteeing them the money, no matter whether they sell tickets or don't.

We actually sold the tickets that we're selling tonight, or on Saturday night I mean.

But, yeah, I love it.

It's all, it's all healthy, good stuff.

Healthy, good stuff with Haymon and Canelo, not healthy, good stuff with MGM.

-Okay.

Have you worked that out with them?

Are you feeling better about that relationship?

-Bill Hornbuckle who runs MGM is-- I couldn't have done the Sphere without Bill Hornbuckle.

I'm under contract with MGM.

I was upset about a lot of things, and this was his olive branch to create some peace between us.

So he gave me the Sphere.

I appreciate it, and, yeah, we'll move forward after this event.

-How much have you spent on this event, this Noche UFC at the Sphere?

-20 million.

We're 20 million in.

-How much do you typically spend on a UFC pay-per-view event?

-2 to 2 1/2 million.

-Wow!

-Yeah.

The budget was 8.

It's like building a house.

You start off here, and you end up here.

-Yet your stakeholders are okay with this?

-Nobody, nobody gets in my way.

And when I want to do something, I do it.

The board came out here.

They flew out here.

The first time I met the board was when I announced this and started spending some money.

So the board flew out here, and they wanted to see what the Sphere was, what it was all about, and they were pumped.

-But I just want to make it clear: You don't want to return there because of how expensive it is.

-It's not that I don't want to return there.

I have a deal with MGM.

You know what I mean?

So I already, I'm under contract.

-For how long?

-Well, we just signed an extension.

That was all part of this thing, too.

-How many years?

-I wasn't going to sign the extension.

It was ugly with MGM.

And it's not that it's pretty now, but Bill Hornbuckle, in my opinion, did the right thing and is trying to, trying to make this right.

-Was it necessary for you to have a title sponsor for this event because of how expensive it was?

-Anytime, anytime you can get more sponsors, especially when you're spending this type of money, it doesn't suck.

Doesn't suck.

-But this is the first time that it's officially, it's Riyadh Season Noche UFC.

-Yeah.

It's the first time I think we've ever done that, but we've had title sponsors like, you know, Bud Light is one of the big sponsors for this event, too, and "presented by Bud Light" or "brought to you by Bud Light," yeah.

-Riyadh Season, though, is a festival in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

And so this is Saudi Arabian money that's helping fund this Mexican heritage themed event.

Does that seem strange to you?

-No, it's fascinating, actually, because when you look at what Sheikh Turki is doing right now, he is a fight fan.

He loves fighting.

He loves the sport.

And this guy has made a massive impact in a very short amount of time.

And it's funny, because I don't normally get along with a lot of the other guys in the industry, and so I didn't know how this relationship would go when we first met.

-And so everyone knows, he is the general entertainment authority chairman of Saudi Arabia.

-Right.

We met, and we sat down.

We talked about boxing and UFC and Slap and lots of other things.

And, yeah, I ended up creating a really good relationship with this guy, and I like him.

And you know me, if I didn't like him, I'd let you know I didn't like him.

But I like him a lot and think what he's doing is fascinating.

And it's interesting that that's what it took to get the big fights done in boxing.

It took Saudi Arabia-type money to make those fights.

-He has described your event as competing with Canelo.

He has said, "We will eat him."

Yet, the fight he really wants is a boxing match between Canelo and Terrence Crawford.

Does that matter to you?

-No.

Listen, on that side, they have their own, you know, I guess we'll call them initiatives or whatever it is that they're trying to do.

But you know, for me, it's all about Noche UFC.

How that plays out for him in the future, I mean, I can't see how they couldn't get a fight done with Canelo.

I mean, they're making fights right now that we thought would never get done.

-Wouldn't have happened, yeah.

-So anything is possible.

I think they could get the deal done with Canelo and Haymon.

-And then the last thing: There are talks that you may want to start a boxing league with him.

-Are there?

-How much truth is there to that?

-Anything is possible.

-Dana White, thank you so much for your time.

-Thank you.

-Joining me now to elaborate on Saudi Arabia's role in boxing and mixed martial arts is Cassandra Cousineau, a journalist at lvsportsbiz.com.

And Cassandra, I want to start with this past weekend in Las Vegas.

Dana White claims MGM guaranteed the Canelo gate.

MGM doesn't want to comment on this.

But what about Canelo's side of this story?

(Cassandra Cousineau) So Canelo's former home, broadcast home, Showtime Sports and Boxing.

Stephen Espinoza has said, For the last time, we did not guarantee the gate.

He has not said anything, though, which is very interesting to me that Canelo did not respond to it.

-So Dana White is reporting a $22 million gate.

Granted, he said that they spent $20 million to put this event on.

-Probably more.

-What do we know about the gate for Canelo?

-That that gate will be confirmed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in about two weeks, but it was a sellout.

Canelo is averaging anywhere between 18 and $20 million for his fights in Las Vegas.

Now, he did fight Edgar Berlanga and he did go head-to-head with UFC, but it was still a sellout.

So I expect it to be somewhere in that, in that range.

Gate is just one part of the equation, because there's pay-per-views as well.

What do we know about those numbers?

-Yeah.

So they never actually announced their pay-per-view.

It's kind of like Twitter folklore what that pay-per-view will be for both of them, right.

Well, the numbers for UFC belong to ESPN in terms of the pay-per-view.

So it'd be up to ESPN, but I can tell you that the Commission will get the numbers from the promoter, and those numbers will be public in terms of what the actual live gate is.

-Okay, but not pay-per-view numbers?

-Right.

-Okay.

Was there a clear winner between the two events, in your opinion?

-Fans.

I think the fans won.

Canelo is the face of boxing, not just in the United States, but internationally.

He's the most recognized fighter in the world.

And then I also think what the UFC was able to do with the Sphere was something we've never ever seen before.

It was kind of like you went to Disneyland and they dropped an octagon in the middle of the whole thing.

And so I think that it was a spectacular night for Las Vegas.

Especially hotel occupancy was a winner there, and I think tourism was a winner as well.

Combat sports are important for Las Vegas.

They are-- combat sports are kind of part of the fabric of sports in Las Vegas.

I think without boxing, specifically, we don't have these arenas.

Without-- without UNLV, we don't have the arenas, we don't have the sports tourism in this city.

So I think the winners were fans, and I think ultimately the city of Las Vegas.

-So Saudi Arabia's involvement in all of this helped put on that UFC event.

Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's general entertainment authority, was at the UFC event, sitting next to Boxer Terence Crawford, who he wants and the world wants to fight Canelo, who's fighting down the street.

It's all so tangled and very, very interesting.

What's the latest on that fight possibly happening?

And is Saudi Arabia good for boxing?

-So I sat down with Top Rank founder, Bob Aram, who's been in the business for a long time, and I asked him that question.

Good for boxing and good for Las Vegas.

And what he says, and I quote him, "Rising tide lifts all boats," and that they have been very good for boxing.

They have made fights that people wanted to see.

We saw Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury, for example.

And then in addition to that, we got Terence Crawford in Los Angeles, not in Las Vegas, but they're really working hard on that Canelo fight.

I think that's a fight that most people really want to see, whether you're a boxing enthusiast or if you're someone who is just casually looking at the sport.

So I do think they're good for boxing, because somebody has to pay for this.

There's not a lot of money being made in boxing, because it's a niche sport.

And it's also shrinking because these fighters don't fight very often.

So yes.

Now, what does it do to Las Vegas is what I'm really curious to see.

-Right.

So many of these big fights have taken place in Saudi Arabia.

This is supposedly Saudi Arabia's way of diversifying its economy by promoting tourism for Riyadh Season.

Yeah.

-So, how is it good for Riyadh Season if they're putting on fights in Las Vegas?

-Well, do they want us to go to Saudi Arabia?

Do they want to promote tourism to Saudi Arabia?

I have so many questions as a woman and as a journalist.

-I think that is, I mean, it is to promote the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through sports and entertainment.

Boxing and MMA is just kind of a little part of it, not the whole thing, but I think it's really important to keep an eye on that and what does it do for this city?

And I asked Bob Aram, Do the big fights still come to Las Vegas?

And he says they will.

Maybe not all of them.

-Last thing: When we talk about is this good for boxing, you and I were talking off camera that there has been the purchase of a boxing publication by this Turki Alalshikh.

What's behind that?

-We don't know what's behind it.

I assume that it is to further the agenda, to promote things that are happening in Riyadh Season, which is from October to March.

And so-- and although the UFC was part of that and so was Terence Crawford, kind of outside of Riyadh Season, but I think it is going to be a promotional tool.

I think there's some kind of back and forth between some journalists who work at Boxing Scene and Turki.

That did not look favorably upon him.

There were some things that were said on Twitter, and then, lo and behold, he buys Boxing Scene.

And so there's some angst and, I think, ambivalence upon within the community, whether or not this is being done in good faith.

We'll see.

It's not been formally announced, but those who work at Boxing Scene have been told this.

So it is a thing.

-Cassandra Cousineau, lvsportsbiz.com, also the Sportsnista on social media, thank you for joining-- -Thank you.

- --Nevada Week.