When UFC 262 kicks off on Saturday night, it will be the second straight event with fans back in the stands at full capacity.
After an epic UFC 261, which UCF president Dana White declared as the first full-capacity indoor sporting event since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it will be another packed house at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas when Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler square off.
With the return of full-capacity crowds, how has the dynamic of the actual fights changed? Pete Hoffman discussed the differences with commentator Phoenix Carnevale, who detailed some surprising advantages to empty arenas on the latest episode of The Fight Fan.
"There's a positive and a negative to everything," Carnevale said. "For the commentators, there's something cool about not having fans in a way, because you're extremely zoned in, and it becomes about telling the story with your voice. But the negative part of that is there's a fan energy, especially with MMA fans. We're so die-hard. There's such an entertainment value to it."
The fighters of UFC 261 seemed to be hyped up by the return of a packed house, particularly Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, who were the first to do their walkouts in front of a capacity crowd since the beginning of 2019.
"I think it's good and bad," Carnevale said. "If you got to fight without the fans, you got to learn that super honed-in experience. If you're one of those people that thrives off the energy of the crowd, you get a different experience too."
Carnevale considers herself in the latter camp, though she has gotten to experience it from both perspectives in a sense, most recently as a commentator.
"When I fought, and I only fought amateur, I think I fought better when there was a crowd because the entertainer in me was fueled by that energy," Carnevale said. "It is very different, but that first one back, that 261, was one of the best we've ever had."
As a spectator, there was an entertainment value without crowds, allowing fans and viewers a closer look into the fight itself without the deafening noise to drown out the audible action.
"I'm a sports nerd as far as MMA and martial arts, so hearing the coaches clearly, there was something so cool about that," Carnevale said. "Also now, when you watch with fans, you're like 'oh, this is a party.' You see the energy, they cut to the crowd and you get that whole ambiance and feel. So there's pluses and minuses to both elements."
That kind of access won't be there on Saturday night, but there will be a hyped crowd once again, which is plenty reason for excitement when UFC 262 kicks off tonight. You can listen to Carnevale and Hoffman discuss UFC 262 below, and tune in to WFAN on Sunday morning from 3 a.m.-6 a.m. to hear Hoffman talk about the fights!
