Eleven months after President Donald Trump said he wanted to hold a UFC event at the White House, it’s finally here. The MMA promotion is celebrating the United States’ impending 250th anniversary with a blockbuster card on the South Lawn.<\/p>\n
UFC Freedom 250 features two title fights at the top of the card, including Topuria’s lightweight unification bout against Gaethje. The undefeated Georgian-Spaniard knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant 155-pound title at UFC 317 last June, but he has been out of action since then due to personal issues. Topuria, a former featherweight champion, holds a 17-0 professional record with 15 finishes.<\/p>\n
In Topuria’s absence, Gaethje claimed the interim title with a unanimous decision win over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 in January. Gaethje, nicknamed “The Highlight” because of his all-action style, is riding a two-fight winning streak and is 4-1 in his last five appearances. Though the 37-year-old is at the tail-end of his career, he’s looking to add an undisputed UFC championship to his resume before calling it quits.<\/p>\n
In the co-main event of UFC Freedom 250, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is moving up to heavyweight for the first time in his career to face Ciryl Gane for the interim title. With a victory, Pereira will become the first fighter in promotion history to win titles in three different weight classes.<\/p>\n
Weather forecast is … not great \u26c8\ufe0f\ud83d\ude2c<\/p>\n
There are severe thunderstorm warnings in the Washington area, which poses a big threat to the event. The National Weather Service is forecasting<\/a> a 72% chance of rain at 8 p.m. ET and a 62% chance at 9 p.m.<\/p>\n The Weather Channel said earlier today that UFC Freedom 250 “is facing a chaotic weather setup,” with a chance of “heavy downpours and wind gusts up to 34 mph.”<\/p>\n UFC CEO Dana White has remained adamant that the event will occur as planned. However, the promotion announced that live event coverage will begin at 8 p.m., which suggests the first fight will start a little later than anticipated.<\/p>\n Previewing UFC Freedom 250 Tale of the tape<\/p>\n Topuria Country Age Height Reach Record Betting odds<\/p>\n Fighter Topuria Gaethje Here’s a look at the full UFC Freedom 250 fight card:<\/p>\n Main card (Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET) US: Must be 21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER; Hope is here. Call (800)-327-5050<\/a> or visit gamblinghelplinema.org<\/a> for 24\/7 support (MA); Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY).<\/p>\n ON: Please play responsibly. 19+. ON only. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 24\/7 at 1-866-531-2600<\/a>. Text us at 247247 or chat with us at www.connexontario.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Freedom 250 takes place tonight at the White House in Washington. In the main event, Ilia Topuria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-736949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736949","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=736949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cropped_UFC_Freedom250_Preview.jpg\")
Matt Cohen \/ theScoreDiving into Topuria-Gaethje<\/p>\n
\nGaethje<\/p>\n
\n Georgia
\n USA<\/p>\n
\n 29
\n 37<\/p>\n
\n 5-7
\n 5-11<\/p>\n
\n 69 in
\n 70 in<\/p>\n
\n 17-0
\n 27-5<\/p>\n
\n Odds<\/p>\n
\n -450<\/p>\n
\n +340<\/p>\n
\nIlia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje
\nAlex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane
\nSean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi
\nJosh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis
\nMauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler
\nBo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus
\nDiego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n