Before the brawl: Go behind the scenes with Fox Sports for Pacquiao-Ugás fight
The crowd inside T-Mobile Arena is frothy, ready for the unpredictable. The fighters are in the center of the ring, listening to commands from the referee. The house lights dim, the spotlights brighten, the tension builds and time stands still.
That’s what Mike Davies was envisioning last Thursday afternoon from the floor of an empty arena. At that particular moment, there were no fans. No fighters. Only a boxing ring on a cold barren floor and members of his crew working tirelessly around it.
Davies is the senior vice president of technical and field operations for Fox Sports, tasked with touring the country and bringing its biggest sporting events to life. Last week’s stop was Las Vegas, where his team of 150 fulfilled weeks of planning and preparation to stage what could have been the final fight of eight-division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s legendary career.
A crowd of 17,438 showed up Saturday to reap the rewards of Davies’ work. But for Davies and the rest of the crew at Fox Sports, the work is a reward in itself.
“It’s amazing. One of the best times in sports is that moment right before the bell rings,” Davies said. “The walkouts have happened. The instructions have been given. The fighters go off to their corners. … You hear the bell. The lights, all that crazy stuff, that cuts. Then it’s just these three dudes in the ring. That, for us, is the moment, that you’ve created something special.”
Behind the scenes
Davies doesn’t just produce boxing events. He also works with Fox Sports producing MLB and NFL programming. But boxing holds a special place for the veteran TV executive, who used to produce boxing content for HBO.
The production for Saturday’s fight began the moment it was announced July 13. That’s when Davies began vetting the venue, conceptualizing how he could create an ideal viewing experience. T-Mobile Arena is among the best venues for boxing, he says.
Constructed in the fight capital with big fights in mind.
The touring production trucks arrived at the beginning of last week, and Davies and company began building out the set Tuesday — installing lighting, cameras and seating. More than 35 cameras were used Saturday night, creating a comprehensive viewing experience for spectators watching at home.
Their locations are strategic, installed as to not obstruct the viewing experience for the spectators who attend the fight.
“We’ve got to create the venue, and it’s been a lot of fun with Fox to be a part of it,” Davies said. “That process starts immediately with really just making sure you get the humans out there. You get a great crew.”
This particular setup crew includes some full-timers and plenty of freelancers who live in Las Vegas and assist with other events. All the while, separate crews work in the production trucks stationed outside the arena, prepping and executing the broadcast in real time.
On fight night, veteran Fox Sports producer Zac Kinman worked in conjunction with a team of assistants and engineers to maximize the setting that Davies created.
“We want to highlight these fighters,” Kinman said last Wednesday after producing the promotion’s final news conference. “When we start hearing Manny Pacquiao is coming back, we start thinking about how we can take this fight to the next level. We want this event to feel as big as possible.”
Like Davies, Kinman and the production team began brainstorming several weeks in advance. And their prep came to fruition in real time as they seamlessly toggled between live shots and preproduced packages that told the stories of Pacquiao, WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugás and the rest of the fighters on the card.
“We get to do television. We don’t have to do it,” said Kinman, downplaying the challenges that live TV presents. “We want to put people in positions to succeed.”
On Saturday, Pacquiao and Ugás made their walks into the ring, and Davies’ vision was realized over the course of Ugás’ unanimous decision victory.
The trucks stationed outside T-Mobile Arena will eventually travel to the NFC championship game this winter and the Super Bowl in 2023. But for one memorable August week, they were in Las Vegas.
“In terms of an in-arena fight, the number of cameras and number of resources we’ve brought to bear here, it’s about the biggest thing (we’ve ever done),” Davies said.
Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.
