The executive producer of the Golden Globes has an explanation as to what the deal was with Sunday’s tremendously awkward segment involving UFC stars Brian Ortega and Mackenzie Dern – sort of.
The moment attracted a lot of attention, even from non-UFC fans who were watching. This was so much so that Hollywood media outlet Deadline featured it as a prominent topic in its postmortem with executive producer Glenn Weiss.
“I’ll say this,” Weiss said. “We were creating this party atmosphere. We were trying to not just present everything as traditional award shows would present them, maybe taking a few attention-grabbing moments and all, and UFC is obviously entering a new thing with CBS and Paramount+, so they’re all partners.
“So we basically decided to take two elements that are kind of hot right now. The ‘Heated Rivalry,’ it’s insane what kind of attention it’s getting right now. To juxtapose it with that and create this moment together, we thought it was a fun little moment.”
The segment was brief as Dern and Ortega were introduced, walked on stage to Stemm’s “Face the Pain,” surveyed the crowd, nodded to each other, then walked off. The gist of the entrance was that they were there as security to protect “Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.
So did the odd segment land as intended? Weiss wasn’t willing to say no.
“I think we’re getting more questions about it than anything else,” Weiss said. “So it got attention, right?”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Golden Globes producer explains awkward UFC segment
