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There may be swarms of bugs, rain showers and thunderstorms, but this isn’t Exodus, or the apocalypse: the president of the United States will host the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House on Sunday, his 80th birthday.
The iconic South Lawn – typically used by presidents to board Marine One on their way to summits, funerals and wars – has been blanketed by an octagon, ringed by thousands of seats in a mini coliseum, and dominated by a 92ft, 600-ton steel structure organizers have nicknamed “the Claw”, not unlike the alien tripods from the 2005 film War of the Worlds.
A tennis court was built at the White House in 1902. There are not one, but two, bowling alleys. Barack Obama added a basketball court in 2009. But never before has a major professional sporting event been staged on the grounds of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The extraordinary event was the idea of Trump himself, according to UFC president Dana White, reinforcing the president’s ties with a league which has amassed an enormous fanbase around a core demographic of young men. But critics have called it a blood sport.
The spectacle has been tightly controlled, with stands packed with US armed forces members required to meet strict weight-to-height and fitness specifications.
Trump is shrewd about what his fans – the Maga base which sent him back to the White House in November 2024 – wants to see, according to biographer Gwenda Blair. “They want to see this anti-elite, anti-upper-crust, anti-upper-class event,” she said. “It’s on the White House lawn? That is rubbing everybody’s face in it. It’s a version of bragging.”
As workers erected scaffolding and vendor tents on the lawn this week, the final countdown to “UFC Freedom 250” was somewhat overshadowed by ominous weather forecasts, and a legal bid to block the event from taking place altogether.
UFC has never before staged a fully outdoor event in its 33-year history. The one previous outdoor attempt, a 2010 show in Abu Dhabi, was held in a venue that was at least partially covered. This one has no roof at all.
The National Weather Service forecast for Sunday evening currently shows a “likely” chance of thunderstorms in Washington DC right around the time the main event begins. UFC has two meteorologists on site, drawing from two separate data sources, filing weather updates every hour.
All the while, a lawsuit filed last weekend by the watchdog group Public Integrity Project sought an emergency injunction. The suit argues the administration erroneously relied on a rule meant for federally organized commemorations of the nation’s 250th anniversary to justify an event that, by White’s own admission, was Trump’s idea. A judge ultimately denied the request on Friday.
The complaint had also pointed to Trump’s financial disclosures, which showed that the president bought up to $50,000 in stock in TKO Group Holdings, the UFC’s parent company, earlier this year.
The administration pressed on, undeterred – championing what it pitched as the UFC’s virtues, from drug testing to diplomacy.
At the White House media day on Wednesday, Sara Carter, a former Fox News contributor now serving as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, presented Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis – one of Trump’s favorite UFC fighters – with recognition for 75 consecutive clean drug tests, and declared him to be an example for children everywhere.
Lewis thanked her, before telling reporters that he didn’t have anything against drugs, generally, but marijuana every now and then helps him out. If anyone wanted to give him a medal for it, he said, he’d take it.
A day later, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a public-private partnership between the state department and the UFC. Rubio called the promotion the “United Nations of fighting”, arguing that a UFC crowd is one of the few places left where people from different backgrounds gather around something they share. The administration signed a similar memorandum with the NFL earlier this year.
The focus now turns to Sunday night’s proceedings: seven fights on the South Lawn. The main event pits undefeated lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, from Spain, against the interim champion Justin Gaethje, from the US, in a unification bout. The co-main event, between Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane, will crown an interim heavyweight champion. Lewis will also feature.
About 4,300 people are expected in the stands, including about 1,200 seats set aside for active-duty military personnel. Those seats came with conditions. According to a Pentagon memo reviewed by Military Times, service members selected for tickets were required to meet a waist-to-height ratio of 0.55 or below, and pass their service-specific physical fitness standards. The memo also called for “genuine UFC fans”, and made clear troops would cover their own travel costs.
But not everyone got through the door. Sean Strickland, the only active American men’s UFC champion, says he was told the White House had not cleared him to attend, a decision he attributed to comments he made criticizing Trump, Israel and Jeffrey Epstein. (White denied that Strickland, who has a history of making racist, sexist and homophobic comments, was banned.)
The remaining tickets will go to the president, UFC leadership and a long list of donors, lobbyists and members of US Congress angling for seats near the cage.
Whether the weather cooperates remains to be seen. But barring a badly timed thunderstorm, under the lights, the White House will stage an event without precedent, at the behest of the president.
David Smith contributed reporting
