UFC fighters will be heading out of the Oval Office and into the Octagon — literally — next summer.
Dana White, the president of the world’s biggest MMA company, confirmed the rumour that had been circulating since it was announced earlier this year that a UFC event would be taking place at the White House as part of celebrations for the United States’ 250th birthday.
“The fighters are going to walk out of the Oval Office,” White revealed during an appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast.
White also said that the whole event was Trump’s idea to hold the event on the lawn of the White House.
“I didn’t ask, he brought it up to me,” White said.
“When you walk around the White House with him, he’s so proud of the White House and he loves it so much, and he loves America. He believes that the White House belongs to the people of America.
“He wants to do more things like kids coming in doing Easter egg hunts, things around Christmas and special events … That’s his thing.
“He wants to bring more Americans to the White House. His thing was, ‘This is your house.’ I was lucky he said, ‘We should do a fight here.’”
White also said that the opportunity to put on an event like this was “once in a lifetime” and isn’t concerned at all about making money from tickets to the show.
“I’ll do this with no crowd. To be on the White House lawn with the backdrop being the White House, I don’t care. This isn’t about the crowd for me. It’s about being at the White House … We’re gonna be on the f****** South Lawn of the White House,” White said.
“This is a one-in-one, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will never happen again.”
White and Trump have been close over the years, having each other’s backs in their endevours. Trump has backed UFC since its early days while White has campaigned for Trump during presidential runs.
“The best thing about being friends with him is that he’s a great guy,” White said. “Think about when we started the UFC and he had us come to the Taj Mahal (Trump’s former Atlantic City casino). The Trump brand was (up here), UFC was (down here). It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around how this brand was looked at back then.”
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that weigh-ins the UFC White House event will take place at the Lincoln Memorial. While the event initially was planned to take place on July 4, 2026, it reportedly was forced to be moved into June due to logistical issues.