The White House is preparing to host its inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship event, with matches scheduled on the South Lawn.
These fights are set to occur next year, following Donald Trump’s personal recruitment of the sport’s president, Dana White, to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in a grand manner. The Cctagon cage fight will be the highlight of the 4 July celebrations in Washington, with Trump assuring that the bout will be the focal point of a year-long series of commemorative events across the States.
Immediately after the announcement, social media users started selecting their dream match-ups, with many expressing a desire to see billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk duke it out. Some even called for Trump to take on Barack Obama in the Octagon.
However, other social media users expressed outrage at the idea of the White House hosting fights. “It’s like America is living through a trailer park simulation,” one commented.
Andrew Fisher chimed in: “This sums up Trump so perfectly. 250 years of the country to celebrate, so he signs a contract to put on a tacky, gaudy spectacle for HIS ego (and no doubt earns a big cut himself). Shameless.” Another user remarked: “The thug in the White House brings new meaning to the term white trash.”
UFC boss White, a long-time friend of the president, announced the plan during an interview, stating: “It is definitely going to happen.”
He disclosed that he would meet with Trump and his daughter Ivanka later this month to finalise the details. A White House official has verified the event to the Express US, marking it as the inaugural UFC bout ever held at the presidential residence. The exact location remains to be determined, but Trump has publicly contemplated building a cage on the South Lawn to house up to 25,000 spectators.White has subsequently confirmed the area as the chosen venue.
“When he called me and asked me to do it, he said: ‘I want Ivanka in the middle of this,'” White said. “So Ivanka reached out to me, and she and I started talking about the possibilities, where it would be, and, you know, I put together all the renderings.”
Trump initially proposed the concept during a 4 July ‘Salute to America’ gathering in Iowa last month, declaring to the audience: “We’re going to have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House.
“We have a lot of land there.”
The occasion is anticipated to attract worldwide attention, not merely for its extraordinary setting but for the prominent guests and combatants likely to participate.
UFC contests typically occur in arenas filled with tens of thousands of supporters, focused around the sport’s distinctive eight-sided cage.The decision highlights Trump’s enduring ties with the UFC.
During the early 2000s, when the sport was battling for mainstream acceptance, he staged some of its earliest significant events at his commercial venues, providing it with a stage when other locations declined.
That bond has persisted throughout his political journey, with White frequently appearing at Trump’s rallies and conventions. The UFC fight marks the latest in a series of prominent alterations Trump has implemented at the White House since commencing his second term.
He has supervised a gold-themed makeover of the Oval Office, covered the Rose Garden’s grass with paving, installed two massive flagpoles on the north and south lawns, and revealed proposals for a £151 million ballroom in the East Wing.Last week, the president was spotted strolling across the West Wing’s rooftop, informing journalists he was “looking at another way to spend my money for this country”.
The UFC revelation emerges days after Paramount, which owns CBS, secured a seven-year, £5.7 billion contract to broadcast UFC competitions.
The Trump administration recently sanctioned a contentious merger between Skydance and Paramount, with both firms providing assurances to the administration before the deal received approval.