All right, I'm going to start with Noce UFC. The attendance there was 16,928 sold out. The gate was 4.4 million. It's the arena record. We broke our own record at the arena. It's the highest United States Fight Night gate ever.
Now, let's get to this event. The gate was $8 million. 18,855 sold out. Fight of the night, Gonzalez Solomon. Molina and Mazi performance of the night. They won the bonuses. Congrats to them.
Day wanted to start off with the main event. Obviously a disappointing night for Connor Ben, but Ryan Garcia, what a performance from him. What did you think of the main event tonight?
What do I think of the main event? Garcia looked incredible and you know, he did everything he said he was going to do.
What did you think of the stoppage? It's a bit of debate. It looked like Connor was still okay on his feet, was weaving and dodging. What did you think of the stoppage?
Did I think that? What? What did you think of the stoppage?
I mean, it wasn't a horrible stoppage. Could it have gone on, you know, a couple more minutes probably, but
What happens with Ryan now? I know he has one more fight with Golden Boy. Does he go and do that and then he's a free agent and you want to bring him to Zufa for Boxing? What happens with Ryan now?
Yeah, I don't know. We'll see how this whole thing plays out. He has one more fight with De La Hoya.
Was De La Hoya here tonight?
He wasn't. And I heard there's some rumblings for... Let me explain something to you. I do not like De La Hoya and De La Hoya does not like me. We would never... I would never disrespect him and say, 'Oh, he shows up here and we treat him like shit.' I would call him on the phone and say, 'Hey, don't show up to this event because we're not going to treat you well.' That was not the case. Why he didn't show up, I don't know.
Okay. Just wanted to go one for UFC Notch. What did you think of the Tommy McMillan fight that...
What's the... Hey, how come this thing isn't working?
Oh, it is working. No, I would... I love you, but I would beg to differ with you. It's not working.
What did he think of the Tommy... What did he think of the Tommy Guns fight?
What did I think of the what?
The Tommy...
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Badass fight in that arena, you know, the Grazo fight and the Tommy gunfight. I mean, it was insane in that place. It was incredible. The Arizona event was amazing. Yeah.
Dan from here. Co-main event. Gio Payo. He's one of the big names. You signed early. What did you think of his performance in victory?
Gioay's performance. Yeah. Great fight. You know, got rocked in the fight, came back and you know, looked great.
And then obviously Benvdz being here. You know, I've made no secrets about the fact that I love Benvdas and obviously that's a great fight to make. So, we'll see how this whole thing plays out.
I know in the UFC you always say you don't make fights after the fight, but...
We don't do that here either.
Both of them agreed to...
And here's what I can tell you. Yeah, you're not wrong. There was a lot of wheeling and dealing going on here tonight at this event.
Did you hear that David Benvdas and Ryan Garcia pitched that they both fight on Cinco de Mayo next year? Like main com.
Well, they were just both in the locker room when I just saw him back there. Yeah, there's a lot of wheeling and dealing going on in this arena tonight. It's fascinating.
And just last one for me. I remember at the MSG event, you had a few issues with the broadcast. Did everything run smoothly today?
I have heard nothing bad about the broadcast tonight and we were able to time everything out so that UFC led right in into boxing and yeah, this week went so smooth it's crazy. Leading up to before the fight started, I was like, 'This is not good. This week's way too smooth.' But thank God it all worked out. Here we are. Great night.
Over here. I know you met Benvitas when he was just a young kid and he's talked about those stories, I guess. How full circle would it be if you're able to work with him in a big fight like him versus Jabat?
No, it's incredible. And for those of you that don't know the story, I was walking into Red Rock one night and he was walking out and he goes, and you know, we said hi to each other. He goes, 'Do you remember me?' I go, 'What do you mean, do I remember you?' Of course I... No. He goes, 'You know who I am, but do you remember me?' And I said, 'I don't understand.' He said, 'When I was a little,' and this is his words, not mine. 'I was a little fat kid in the gym. I walked up to you and I told you that I'm going to be a world champion someday and you sat down and talked to me for like 15 minutes and it meant a lot.' And I was like, 'Holy shit, that's awesome.' No, I don't remember that.
And it seems like Tioimo also tried to get in the ring to face off with Ryan. Was that just a case of all the mess going down there and they didn't let him or was that something from your guys' end to not do another face off?
This thing's working great, Len. Oh, perfect. Yeah, I'm right on. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, we're trying not to let guys in, you know, and you know my position on that with the UFC. We have a cage. It's easier to keep people out of the cage. But yeah, first of all, whoever wins tonight, you know, Ryan Garcia goes out and does what he says he's going to do in spectacular fashion and then have somebody else jump in the ring and you know, for a fight that isn't set up, it just... No, it's not what we do. Even the Benvitas thing, Jopatia started going back and forth with him and it was a mutual thing. So, we ended up letting him in, but we weren't going to let Benvitas in either.
Yeah. And everything kind of indicates towards, you know, Ryan and Tophimo being next for that. Topofima said that, you know, he was kind of close to signing with you guys. So, is there any chance you'd be involved with that if that ever happens or...
Everything is possible.
Denny, you gave Connor Ben a great deal to come over to Zufur. And you've had the prograde performance and tonight. How are you going to rebuild him now?
Give me that. Conor...
Well, listen, you let Connor go home, spend some time with his family, enjoy his, you know, his success that he's had this year, and then when he's ready to come back, he lets us know and we figure out what's next for him.
But he said he cannot do 147, he cannot do 154. He thinks he's a 160 fighter. Do you think that on the back of Pro Grain tonight, what the guys at 160 will do to him...
Of him moving up to a higher weight?
Yeah. What would the guys at 160 do to him on the back of tonight?
Yeah. Yeah. What? We'll see. We'll see how the whole thing plays out and what he wants to do and we'll figure something out.
Hi there, Dana over here. A few hours ago you were watching the UFC and somehow you found you made it here. I don't know how you do it, but congratulations. Regarding this event, this is the first non-numbered Zufa event. When can we expect the next one to happen?
When do I expect the next one to happen?
Yes. It's going to be in England, right? I mean, we're in England for the next one and...
The non-numbered one. So, especially...
I have no idea. I have no idea, sir. We... When we do, we will announce it.
Dana, to your right over here.
To your right, Jason Tactian Armenian Sports News. Congratulations on two successful events. First, I wanted to ask you about the co-main. Prior to the co-main, wanted to know about the WBC shenanigans involving Don King, Gioaya, and Noah Mckelian's fight. What was your take on that?
There was a talk about the WBC cruiserweight title not being on the line. There was a press...
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all this stuff is a work in progress. You know, everybody keeps saying to me, 'I thought you weren't working with the organizations.' And I'm not going to be told what to do by anybody. I'm not going to be told how to run my business by anybody. But, you know, a lot of these kids grew up in, you know, or just at a level where they could fight for some of these belts. And if these guys are willing to work with us, we'll figure out how to make it happen. We want to do what's right by the fighters. So, we'll see how it all plays out.
But you know, you know how this goes. Any of you that have covered boxing for any amount of time, you know how the shit goes. So...
You had Noah fight this week. Next week, you have Arman Sarukan fighting a day before Armenian independence. Just talk to me about how important national support is to build up these stars and that support for those international fighters.
Just what it's like to have national support for fighters, how important that is for national support to build up superstars.
It's amazing. But you know, my thing with the boxing business, if you look at what we did in the UFC, right, in traditionally in boxing, when I was involved in boxing before UFC, you had to fight in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. If you were fighting in New York, you better have a Puerto Rican. If you were fighting in LA, you better have a Mexican. You know, that was kind of the way it worked. A couple weeks ago, I fought with a Russian Muslim and an Irish kid in Philly. We sold it out, broke the record. You know, at the end of the day, what matters are the fights that are being put on. And what my goal is over the next couple of years is to gain the trust of the boxing fans. Like when we went to Arizona tonight, the prelims were crazy. I mean, the place was packed. People were losing their minds. And those of you that cover UFC know that sometimes people are just as excited for one of the prelims as they are for the main event. I want to build that trust back in the boxing fans that if you fly out to Las Vegas, you're going to see a great event from the first fight of the night to the main event. So, or if you stay home on Saturday and watch it.
D... incredible tonight. When you envision Zufa boxing, you know, at the highest level, how close was tonight to that?
When you envision boxing to the level, the highest level. How do you rate that tonight? How do you rate the level of boxing tonight?
The level of boxing tonight. Well, I mean, the matchmaking was great and like when we did the weigh-ins yesterday, all the kids come out from the first fight of the night to the, you know, and then it gives the media and us the ability to tell their stories and who they are. And, you know, after people get to learn more about these fighters, we start filling the arena from the first fight of the night to the main event. So, sort of the same answer I just gave this guy.
