Published on: September 12, 2024, 03:38h.
Last updated on: September 12, 2024, 05:39h.
A holographic projection of UFC CEO Dana White will be revealed on Saturday night at the Las Vegas location where the MMA legend has vowed never to hold another event again.
Digi-Dana will not be permanently showcased within the Las Vegas Sphere, as the hologram was commissioned by UFC, not the Sphere itself. Therefore, it will be deactivated and removed immediately after the conclusion of UFC 306’s 10 “Riyadh Season Noche” matches.
Accompanying White’s hologram in the Sphere’s Aura Gallery— the eerie space where robots with realistic expressions answer inquiries but dismiss anyone attempting to be inappropriate— will be holograms of your “favorite fighters” for “an unparalleled selfie opportunity.”
This information comes from a press release by Proto Hologram that does not specify the fighters who will be holographed, but assures that they will all be depicted in “life-size, volumetric 4K” without elaborating on what that entails.
“We’re incredibly excited to see Proto holograms at Sphere for the first time ever at Noche UFC!” exclaimed David Nussbaum, CEO of LA-based Proto Inc., with the typical enthusiasm found in press releases.
Remarkably, the company wanted us to craft a story from its thin press release without providing a photo of what its Dana White hologram looks like.
“I completely understand, but they are withholding any visuals,” the PR representative emailed us.
Therefore, we resorted to generating an image from the mysterious realm of dark-web machine learning. Unfortunately, our free software, Microsoft Designer, is incapable of creating the likenesses of celebrities.
Yet, doesn’t Dana White’s back appear remarkably realistic? It’s unlikely that the actual simulated Dana White’s back will surpass ours, which you had the chance to view at no cost instead of $5,000.
And you probably didn’t even notice that stray white beard, did you?
As reported yesterday, the production expenses for UFC 306 were initially estimated at $8 million, prompting White to impose historically high ticket prices of up to $23K. However, production costs have now allegedly escalated to $20 million, while secondary ticket prices have dropped to a sixth of their face value and continue to decline.
Naturally, since most contemporary holograms speak, ours would convey the same sentiment reportedly expressed by the real Dana White to MMA journalist John Morgan recently: “We have no intention of hosting an event at the Sphere again.”