For more than a century, the South Lawn of the White House has hosted the Easter Egg Roll, where children use wooden spoons to race across the manicured grass. At Thanksgiving, presidents have used the area to ceremoniously pardon turkeys.
But on Sunday, the South Lawn will hold the octagonal cage for seven Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, where half-naked men will punch, kick and choke each other into submission.
The unusual spectacle is a result of the decades-long friendship between President Trump and Dana White, the U.F.C.’s chief executive. The mixed martial arts fights are being held on the president’s 80th birthday, which is also Flag Day.
Here is what you need to know:
How can you watch the fights?
The event, known as UFC Freedom 250, is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will be shown only on the Paramount+ streaming service. White ruled out showing the fights on CBS, which has considerably broader reach.
White said that Ilia Topuria of Georgia and Justin Gaethje of the United States would enter the cage for their lightweight title bout after walking out from the Oval Office.
There is also a heavyweight interim title bout between Alex Pereira of Brazil and Ciryl Gane of France. The rest of the night’s fighters are from the United States, Canada and Brazil. White said Trump had requested, while at a fight in Miami in April, that the heavyweight Derrick Lewis be added to the lineup.
Last year, the U.F.C. signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, the media company owned by the tech scion David Ellison, to stream fights on Paramount+ and air select fights on CBS.
The Trump administration is reviewing Paramount’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN, after allowing the Skydance takeover of Paramount. The company’s moves have brought accusations of Trump-friendly changes at CBS, and on Friday the Justice Department said it would not challenge the merger.
Why is this happening?
After White became president of the U.F.C. in 2001, the league struggled to find sponsors, venues and media partners because of its brutality. Mixed martial arts incorporates fighting styles such as boxing, Muay Thai, jujitsu and karate — Senator John McCain once called the sport “human cockfighting.”
Trump, then a real estate magnate, allowed the U.F.C. to host two events at his Trump Taj Mahal hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. White has said that the gesture was instrumental in placing the U.F.C. on solid footing.
Trump and White have stayed friends since. About a week after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, he attended a U.F.C. fight at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
“‘What do you think about doing a fight at the White House?’” White said in an interview, recalling what Trump said to him that night. “For the president to lean over to me and ask me to be basically the main event for America’s 250th birthday, I was blown away.”
Within days, White House officials called to start formal discussions, White said. Craig Borsari, the U.F.C.’s top production executive, soon flew to Washington to scout the venue, and White said Trump asked his eldest daughter, Ivanka, to oversee the planning.
How close are Trump and White?
Trump has been a public fan of the U.F.C. during both his presidential terms. Since 2019, he had attended at least 10 of the league’s events in Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Newark, N.J.
White has spoken for Trump at three Republican National Conventions and at Trump’s victory party on election night in 2024. During that presidential campaign, White facilitated interviews for Trump with several influencers in the so-called manosphere, including Joe Rogan, Adin Ross and the sports podcast “Bussin’ With the Boys.”
“We’re friends,” White said. “It’s because this guy is Donald Trump and because he’s the president of the United States, everybody weirds out on it.”
What will Sunday’s event look like?
Capacity on the South Lawn is about 4,300 spectators — invited guests and military personnel — in an amphitheater-like venue with a 92-foot-tall roof and a lighting grid nicknamed “The Claw.” Borsari, the production executive, said the seating capacity had expanded from 2,500 at Trump’s request by placing seats in a more vertical configuration. Borsari said the U.F.C. would pay to replace any damaged grass after the event.
The Ellipse, a park near the White House, will host a watch party with more than 70,000 fans.
Organizers will have a meteorologist on site to monitor the weather and could postpone the start time if needed. Temperatures could reach 90 degrees and forecasts include rain, but officials said lightning was the primary concern.
Mark Shapiro, the president of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of the U.F.C. and World Wrestling Entertainment, said it expected to spend more than $60 million on the event. That cost is nearly triple the amount the company spent to produce a fight at Sphere in Las Vegas, but Shapiro said the brand exposure would be worth it, comparing it to the Super Bowl.
“We could not believe the president was willing to entertain us,” Shapiro said.
What has the reaction been?
Critics including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have said the U.F.C. event is a distraction from other issues, such as the war in Iran and high gas prices.
On Friday, a judge declined to halt the event after a lawsuit was filed by two Virginia residents represented by the Public Integrity Project.
White said he was unbothered by any of the criticism.
“There’s always bad things going in the world,” White said. “You have fanatical political people in this country and around the rest of the world that are going to have opinions on this thing and ‘This is a MAGA party.’ It is a fight with a global sport that happens to be an American company celebrating the 250th birthday of America on the South Lawn of the White House. It is what it is.”
Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.
The post What to Know About the U.F.C. Fights at the White House appeared first on New York Times.
