{"id":159314,"date":"2025-09-21T18:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159314\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T18:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:07:07","slug":"donald-trump-faces-backlash-as-white-house-teases-ufc-plans-mma-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159314\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump faces backlash as White House teases UFC plans – MMA – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House is under fire for unveiling plans of a proposed UFC event on the South Lawn next year<\/a>, in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump<\/a> announced his intention to host a blockbuster UFC<\/a> card at the White House as part of the country’s founding celebrations. The news of a UFC card taking place against the backdrop of the iconic White House quickly spread, eliciting responses from MMA legends Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, both of whom expressed interest in participating in the high-profile event.<\/a><\/p>\n

Given President Trump’s close ties with UFC head Dana White<\/a>, the likelihood of the event falling through seems slim, with planning already underway. White disclosed that it was President Trump’s idea to host the UFC event on this significant day, a nod to his long-standing passion for mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t ask – he brought it up to me,” White shared on Impaulsive. “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,” White added.<\/p>\n

“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.'”<\/p>\n

Remarkably, the combatants chosen for the spectacle will make their entrance from the iconic Oval Office. “The fighters are gonna walk out of the Oval Office,” White revealed.<\/p>\n

The gathering will be an exclusive affair with fewer than 5,000 people in attendance. Nevertheless, it “isn’t about the gate,” White said.<\/p>\n

The occasion will be unique, not to be repeated for an extended period, according to White’s perspective. “I’ll do this with no crowd,” White said. “To be on the White House lawn with the backdrop being the White House, I don’t care.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t about the crowd for me. It’s about being at the White House. … We’re gonna be on the f—ing South Lawn of the White House. This is a one-in-one, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will never happen again.”<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

With less than a year remaining before the planned extravaganza, the White House has decided to showcase what the South Lawn might resemble on Fight Night. Computer-generated images display the octagon positioned before the White House, encircled by seating and lighting.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the White House’s visuals have received divided responses.<\/p>\n

“I proudly voted for Trump and I’m happy about a lot of stuff but this seems incredibly stupid,” one viewer said on X. “President Trump is out here literally turning the White House lawn into the Roman Colosseum,” another said. “Our Capitol has been turned into a circus,” a third reacted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House is under fire for unveiling plans of a proposed UFC event on the South Lawn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,958,2490,786,785,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-159314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dana-white","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}