SALT LAKE CITY — The UFC will be center stage in the Beehive State once again on Saturday, as fighters step foot into the octagon for UFC 291.
This marks the second time in the past year that the UFC has held a pay-per-view event in Salt Lake City.
Cosm, a global tech company has partnered with the UFC to bring live UFC events to their venues around the world. That includes two venues in Los Angeles and Dallas, both slated to open in 2024.
On Thursday, Cosm hosted an immersive shared reality showcase at their experience center here in Salt Lake at the University of Utah Research Park.
"It's these ridiculous visuals, the all-access visuals of a fight being inside the cage, it's the promise of all of those things," said Jeb Terry, President & CEO of COSM.
The dome prototype here in Salt Lake is the only place to currently experience Cosm's state-of-the-art visuals.
"It's a massive 8K LED dome, it's 50 feet tall, 20 meters across and it's really the definitive prototype of our technology," said Terry.
Once the two public venues open, Cosm says they will have an 87-foot diameter dome.
With the UFC's return to SLC this weekend, Terry spoke about what kind of exposure this event gives to businesses, like Cosm.
"A lot of our history and heritage started here and so being able to bring in events like the UFC and really work together to drive momentum around the entire city and have that energy, it's critical," said Terry.
That exposure can also be felt at one local MMA gym.
Mike Zimmerman, the CEO of Crown Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Bluffdale took up the sport five years ago at 39 years old, before opening his gym in October of last year.
"Yesterday, we had seven people on the UFC roster here in our gym training," said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman says that includes fighters on the card for UFC 291.
"We have Claudio Ribeiro, he's from Brazil, he's in the prelims," said Zimmerman. "We had Michael Chiesa, he's been here since the beginning of the week, every night."
As well as, Justin Gaethje, who will be fighting in a rematch with Dustin Poirier in the main event on Saturday.
"He let all of my members come and watch a whole training session on Monday, that's so rare to be able to let anyone watch would be rare," said Zimmerman. "Much less invite 100 random people to come, he's been very gracious to us for our current members."
Zimmerman spoke about the impact getting to see the cream of the crop in the UFC, up close, has on the younger people at his gym.
"They get to see their heroes, they watch these guys on TV, and then they get to come here and they're like, well, what I'm getting, the product that I'm experiencing this is what they want, So immediately it just builds a ton of confidence in all of the process."
UFC 291 will get going on Saturday at the Delta Center, beginning at 4:30 p.m. with the early prelims.
