Mount Rushmore is off the table. Dana White confirmed that much Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and it’s the one hard detail he gave away about the UFC’s next marquee big-site event, a show the promotion is targeting for next year at a location White still won’t name.
White spoke to reporters at the Meta APEX after the ninth episode of Season 10 of Dana White’s Contender Series. He was upfront that there wasn’t much new to share. The update came down to two points: Rushmore is out, and the planning is live.
“We’re working on it,” White told reporters. “We’re still working on it. Literally, it is being worked on right now.”
He grinned when the question came up, which tells you he’s enjoying keeping this one close. White also confirmed the project is a joint effort between himself and Craig Borsari, the UFC’s live event production chief and the guy who turns these wild ideas into an actual Octagon with lights and a crowd around it.
How we got here
The bar is high. The UFC ran UFC Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C., in June, which ranks as one of the biggest shows the company has put on since it launched in 1993. Before that came the Sphere in Las Vegas. The promotion has built a habit of chasing venues nobody would have pitched for a fight card a decade ago, and the next one is supposed to top all of it.
White isn’t saying where, so the guessing game has started. Writers at Sports Illustrated’s FanNation floated a handful of options, and to be clear, these are their ideas, not leaks or reports:
- Wrigley Field, Chicago. CM Punk has said WWE appears to have teased SummerSlam or WrestleMania there, and with both WWE and the UFC living under the TKO umbrella, the crossover logic is easy to see.
- The Bellagio, Las Vegas. The pitch is an Octagon set up overlooking the famous fountains while fights play out.
- Fenway Park, Boston. BKFC has already run a show there.
- Yankee Stadium, the Bronx. The ballpark has old-school fight history from early 1900s boxing.
The catch with most of those is that they’re open-air stadiums, and the UFC has largely steered clear of outdoor stadium shows. That’s what makes this guessing game so hard. Whatever White and Borsari land on has to feel bigger than D.C. without asking the company to throw out its own instincts on venues.
Quick take
I’ll take the Bellagio fountains every time, just for the walkouts. Picture a featherweight stepping out to that water show, then going three hard rounds with the Strip glowing behind the cage. Mount Rushmore always sounded more like a photo op than a fight night, so losing it doesn’t bother me. My one ask for whatever venue wins: book it the way Contender Series gets booked, with killers who come to finish, and keep the novelty in the setting where it belongs. A once-in-a-lifetime location built around a five-round staring contest would be a waste of Borsari’s crew.
