UFC FREEDOM 250
Special Feature
Interviews
From Vision To Reality: Building UFC Freedom 250
An Interview With Craig Borsari, UFC Executive Producer and Chief Content Officer
It happened at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 at UFC 309. In a moment destined to become part of UFC lore, president of the United States, Donald Trump, leaned over to UFC CEO Dana White and suggested to company host a card at the White House. The rest, as they say, is history.
But, for an idea as bold and disruptive as that to become a reality, you need some of the best minds in the business.
How To Watch UFC Freedom 250 Presented By Crypto.com & RAM
Enter UFC Executive Producer and Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari, whose teams were tasked with planning, building and ultimately executing Sunday's UFC Freedom 250 Presented by Crypto.com & RAM.
No stranger to tall tasks, it was Borsari and company that helped conceive and achieve previous UFC landmark events, like Noche UFC at Sphere and UFC Fight Island. Still, fighting on the South Lawn of the nation's presidential residence presented a host of unprecedented challenges Borsari had never faced in his career.
Wind, rain, lightening, bugs and a host of other atypical UFC challenges occupied Borsari's waking hours for many months, and as the opening bell of the first bout approaches, we were grateful to get a few minutes with the man to talk about how it all came together.
UFC: As we sit here just a few days out from the event, what is the number one thing that will keep you awake tonight?
CRAIG BORSARI: There's no doubt weather is top of mind. There are still a lot of things that we need to do in terms of fine-tuning the infrastructure, the seating configuration, the lighting, and the audio on the south lawn, but we always knew we were going to be in that position. Now the variable is weather, and, with weather, obviously comes contingency planning. There are a lot of unpredictable days ahead.
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It's really staying in touch with all of the key stakeholders, making sure that the contingency planning that we've been talking about for months and months starts to take effect.
History in the making.#UFCWhiteHouse is LIVE SUNDAY JUNE 14 At 8pmET on @ParamountPlus!
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UFC: A lot of the external chatter is fixated on the weather factor, but at the end of the day, these are fighters and they’ll adapt, right?
CB: It's a great question. I think Garcia mentioned that he has fought in the past outside. I heard a brief interview from Sean O'Malley who seemed to be ready to take on the elements. That’s a great question for the athletes. I'm not sure how it changes their preparation or their mindset going into it, but our job is to try to set up the Octagon in the safest way possible where they have the ability to showcase their skills. That's what we're focused on and these fighters, they're all professionals. They'll figure out how to get in there and perform at the highest level.
UFC: What was the timeline of this event going from “an interesting idea” to “oh, we’re really doing this”?
CB: It was about a year from when we got assurance that this was going to happen until show day. And that year was filled with real consistent, frequent planning; conferences, conference calls, all-hands-on-deck meetings, a wide group of folks getting together, coming up with a plan not just for the build but also for all of the logistics, all of the security protocol that we need to get through to even operate on the south lawn. So, yeah, it was pretty extensive. It was a full 12 months.
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UFC: Logistically, how do you work on such a mammoth project for that long while still keeping up with the UFC’s regular schedule?
CB: Well, that's the beauty of the team that we have at the UFC. We are at a point where, across all departments, we can run with multiple teams. I have removed myself for the past six months and dedicated my time to this event. I don't have any concerns that the team that we have assembled can continue on and deliver high-level programming no matter where we are in the world. That was all going on in the background, but a few of us really started to spend more and more time about six months ago on this event to the point where I would say for the past five or six months, it's all I've been working on.
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UFC: What was one of the more unexpected challenges you encountered while planning this and how did you get it handled?
CB: I would say it's operating on the South Lawn, which is arguably the most secure location in all of America. Getting hundreds of crew and employees to have access to work within that environment is incredibly challenging. Just to get truckloads on to the South Lawn takes 5-6 times longer than we would normally be faced with if we were at a normal arena like T-Mobile (Arena in Las Vegas). Just the logistics around operating in such a highly secured location was probably the biggest challenge.
AMERICAN STORIES: Sean O’Malley | Steve Garcia | Michael Chandler | Kyle Daukaus | Justin Gaethje | Derrick Lewis | Josh Hokit
It’s all incredibly challenging. If you think a typical of UFC event that we would put on in an arena or stadium anywhere in the world, you are working with a blank canvas, but you have all the infrastructure that is still there from the venue side. You have power, you have light, you have a roof, a ceiling to rig it to so that you can fly your lighting grid and your PA. You've got a loading dock where you can park. None of that exists here. There are no restrooms. There are no conference rooms where you can hold meetings. So all of the infrastructure that would come when you set foot on at a typical venue day one, all of that needs to be built before you even get to building out your show. Wildly challenging to say the least. You know, we've got over 50 generators just to power up the three locations where we're going to be broadcasting live, so it's a heavy, heavy lift.
UFC: The Lewis vs Hokit bout was added pretty late in the game. How much did that throw a wrench into what you had already done?
CB: Oh yeah, yeah, it did. I was not happy about that [laughs]. Dana was so excited that he added that fight. We were in Miami (when the fight was announced), and I had the opposite reaction because I knew all of the subsequent steps that we were going to have to take to fit that fight into the broadcast. We got it done, and it wasn't ideal in the moment, but looking back now, our fans are incredibly excited to see both of them fight. It's a great matchup, and now that the initial shock of adding a seventh fight is behind me, I'm happy that it's on.
MORE UFC FREEDOM 250 PRESENTED BY CRYPTO.COM & RAM: Topuria’s Unbeaten Road | Gaethje’s Knockout Tour | History For Poatan | O’Malley’s Moment | The Lightweight Landscape | Rising 250 Stars | Daukaus’ Year | Nickal’s Biggest Stage | Zahabi’s Breakout
UFC: There’s obviously a ton of elements in this show that aren’t part of a typical UFC event. Which one of those are you personally most excited to see and why?
CB: I would say two things. One is the sophisticated lighting package that we have not just on the claw structure but the surrounding grounds and our ability to light up the White House and the surrounding landscape in a way that's never been done before is really exciting. I've seen some glimpses this week of what that might look like and it's very, very cool. So that's one thing I'm excited about. The other one is the integration of the President's own band. What's more patriotic than having the President's own band performing in and around our event? So those are the two that I'm excited to see on Sunday night.
UFC: The last few years have seen UFC pull off Fight Island, Noche UFC at Sphere and now UFC Freedom 250. What could we possibly do to top this?
CB: Fortunately, I don't have to figure that out. We leave it to Dana to figure out what's the next challenge. I can assure you he will come up with something. Whenever he comes up into my office and throws this crazy concept my way, I'm confident our team will figure it out.
UFC Freedom 250 presented by Crypto.com and Ram took place live from the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, June 14. See the Official Results, Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!