The UFC’s highly anticipated 300th pay-per-view event experienced a major hiccup early on. Viewers in the UK experienced audio issues while tuning into the TNT Sports on Saturday, with no commentary being heard.
During the first fight of the Early Prelims between Deiveson Figueiredo and Cody Garbrandt, UFC fans complained of the audio consistently cutting out on the TNT Sports stream. Graphics detailing the details of the match were additionally missing, as the two fighters were the only thing visible on screen.
Disgruntled viewers quickly flocked to social media to voice their anger surrounding the technical difficulties. “Okay TNT sports is just f*****g up the audio on UFC 300 how kind, no commentary for us?” one fan wrote on X, with another adding: “UFC 300 audio and visuals f*****g up big time.”
Others seemed to be less annoyed by the lack of commentary, even arguing it made the fight more entertaining. “Commentator audio is out over at UFC 300 and it’s the best thing that could have happened,” a user on X wrote.
Follow us on X for the best and latest in sports news
Though initially viewed as an issue only with TNT Sports, one fan alleged that the problems with the stream were coming directly from the UFC, writing: “Not just TNT I’m watching on SuperSport in South Africa, must be a UFC issue.” The stream’s problems were swiftly resolved, however, before the fight’s end.
A lack of audio wasn’t the only tech problem that UFC 300 faced early on. Fans looking to see who was fighting on the stacked card Saturday afternoon were likely left confused by google’s info bar, which claimed that the face off between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway was cancelled. The lightweight bout was not in fact scrapped, and the label was subsequently fixed later in the evening.
Despite getting off to a rough start, UFC 300 is still expected to go down as one of the greatest combat sporting events of all time. The historic card features 12 current and former champions, as well as two championship battles. The culminating bout is a light heavyweight title fight between reigning champ Alex Pereira and fearsome challenger Jamahal Hill.
“This time we’re looking at, ‘How do we make UFC 300 different than 100, 200, and anything that we’ve ever done?’” UFC president Dana White told TNT Sports last month. “What I wanted was, I wanted it to be, when the first prelim of the night starts, you have to be in front of your television.
“You can’t miss one fight on this card. So, when you look at 300 right, we have 12 current and former UFC champions or interim champions, seven pound-for-pound [ranked] fighters, almost every single fight features a ranked contender, 16 ranked fighters in total. And it’s expected to break every record at the T-Mobile Arena with a $15 million gate. So, UFC 300 is the greatest combat sports card ever assembled.”