When Donald Trump first introduced that the White Home would host a UFC occasion to mark the USA’ 250th anniversary, the US president instructed supporters it would be a “big deal”. Proof over the past week means that, not for the primary time, Trump could also be exaggerating just a little.
Trump has promised a spectacle not like something the UFC has staged earlier than. “They’re going to have eight or 9 championship fights – the most important fights they’ve ever had,” Trump said in December of plans for the White Home occasion. “Each one is a championship combat, and each one is a legendary kind of combat.”
The UFC was simply as bullish, with CEO Dana White promising “the best combat card ever assembled”; a “one-of-one unbelievable alternative” to put on the “baddest card of all time”. The hype surrounding the occasion feels much more obnoxious when you think about that it’s being held in honor of a president whose administration has overseen a brutal immigration crackdown throughout which two US residents have been killed, alienated a lot of its former allies and engaged in doubtful army actions overseas.
It seems that the hype can also be as unjustified as it’s obnoxious. When the UFC lastly introduced the combat card for White Home occasion final week, it fell wanting Trump and White’s boasts. As a substitute of the “eight or 9” title fights promised by Trump, the occasion will characteristic precisely two championship bouts: a light-weight championship combat between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje in the principle occasion, and an interim heavyweight title combat between Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane. The 4 remaining primetime fights will characteristic a handful of fighters who’re vocal Trump supporters reminiscent of Michael Chandler, who will face Brazilian fighter Mauricio Ruffy, and Bo Nickal, who will problem Kyle Daukaus.
The lineup, to place it mildly, was not effectively acquired. Many followers lamented the missed alternatives to incorporate veteran UFC stars reminiscent of Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. Even former UFC champion Ronda Rousey – as soon as fiercely loyal to White and the UFC – admitted that “UFC’s White Home card sucks”. However maybe it was former UFC fighter Tom Lawlor who summed it up finest when he tweeted: “LOL THATS IT?”
Lawlor has a degree. The UFC White Home occasion – which the group dubbed “UFC Freedom 250” regardless of being timed to coincide with Trump’s eightieth birthday on 14 June – can hardly be thought-about the most effective MMA combat playing cards of all time. That isn’t to counsel that it doesn’t have the potential to be thrilling; it’s simply that there’s little or no to tell apart it from every other current UFC occasion.
The blame for the essential response falls squarely on White and the UFC, who fueled Trump’s hyperbole surrounding the occasion and allowed followers to dream. However the disappointment can also be a testomony to one thing extra poignant: the UFC has develop into a sufferer of its personal success.
Since buying the UFC in 2016, Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor has approached the UFC much less as a standard sports activities league and extra as a scalable media property. In 2005, the 12 months the UFC signed its first broadcast take care of Spike TV, the UFC staged simply 10 occasions. Every felt consequential – a showcase stacked with recognizable names and fights that captured the creativeness. By 2009, after I started watching the game, that quantity had doubled to twenty occasions yearly – now not uncommon, however nonetheless appointment viewing. Because the UFC continued to develop exponentially over the next decade, the schedule greater than doubled once more, ushering in an period of relentless quantity. Watching UFC occasions now not felt like an event, however an obligation.
As one combat fan correctly commented in a social media publish complaining concerning the UFC White Home card: “UFC peaked 2007-2016.”
In August 2025, the UFC signed a seven-year take care of Paramount valued at about $7.7bn. The deal moved the UFC’s marquee occasions away from the pay-per-view mannequin that had sustained the group since its inception. As a substitute, Paramount’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, Paramount+, would air 13 marquee numbered occasions and 30 Combat Nights for a complete of 43 UFC reveals in 2026. And although White offered the deal as “unbelievable for UFC followers and our athletes” within the official press launch, the reality is that it seemingly ended the UFC’s want to assemble blockbuster occasions, for the reason that promotion is now not attempting to promote particular person pay-per-view playing cards.
The UFC White Home card is simply one of many 43 occasions that the group is obligated to provide in 2026. As a substitute of exhausting its assets to appease Trump’s whims, the UFC took the smart – albeit disappointing – choice to not place all its eggs in a single basket. The UFC White Home card can also be anticipated to cost upwards of $60m, with the group anticipating to recoup not less than half that sum by way of sponsorships. This has seemingly factored into the UFC’s choice to not add to its hefty invoice by together with marquee names like Jones or McGregor, the previous claiming he was “lowballed” by the UFC when negotiating to be on the White Home combat card. White, in flip insisted that the UFC had no intention of that includes the previous two-division champion on the present. It isn’t as if the group had a scarcity of (cheaper) choices exterior of Jones. “Everyone needs to combat on this card,” White said final 12 months. “Actually everyone.”
The irony, in fact, is that the UFC White Home card is meant to be extra than simply one other UFC occasion. It’s the Trump present – a one-of-a-kind spectacle on the South Garden of the White Home, held each to commemorate America’s birthday, and his personal. The UFC spent the higher a part of the final decade laundering Trump because the quintessential fighter. White maintains an in depth friendship with Trump and has stumped for him throughout three presidential campaigns. He has additionally credited himself with convincing Trump to pivot to podcasts throughout the 2024 marketing campaign, a call that helped the president win over undecided younger male voters.
As I wrote in an article within the Guardian practically six years in the past, the UFC is the sports activities arm of Trump’s Maga regime. It helped put Trump again within the White Home and stays a platform for his loyal base of supporters. The UFC White Home occasion is the end result of that union: an evening of authoritarian theatre for a president whose second-term politics – from terrorizing immigrants to dropping bombs throughout three continents – boils right down to a single governing precept: would possibly is correct.
It’s simply too unhealthy the fights themselves gained’t be well worth the worth of admission.
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