The UFC really held an event on the White House lawn.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, UFC Freedom 250 took place on the South Lawn of the White House, and Justin Gaethje added the crown jewel to his Hall of Fame career, scoring a massive upset over Ilia Topuria in the main event. It was the capstone to the most unique evening in MMA history, so let\u2019s talk about everything that happened.<\/p>\n
1. Did UFC White House live up to the hype?<\/p>\n
Heck: If you say no, you\u2019re just flat-out lying. Don\u2019t do that!<\/p>\n
Lee: Big time! An unquestionably memorable card for mostly positive reasons, and one of the all-time great show closers.<\/p>\n
Meshew: Yes and no? The event is one the MMA world will talk about forever, and if you went into this with high expectations, I suspect you were thrilled. But outside of the MMA bubble, I\u2019m not sure if this resonated positively, and if you weren\u2019t an American fan, I have no idea if all the America-ness of it was cool or crass.<\/p>\n
2. Where does Justin Gaethje\u2019s win rank among the all-time upsets?<\/p>\n
Heck: It\u2019s on the Mount Rushmore with Matt Serra, Julianna Pe\u00f1a, and Sean Strickland, but more importantly, this truly was Gaethje\u2019s Miracle on Ice moment.<\/p>\n
I still am in awe about what I witnessed in this fight, a true all-time war that turned into a horrific beatdown, and an unforgettable moment for Gaethje. This win solidifies him as not just the most exciting fighter in UFC history, but he\u2019s officially entered all-time greatness territory by doing the one thing that\u2019s eluded him his entire career.<\/p>\n
Also, Gaethje may have given Topuria the greatest gifts he could\u2019ve given him \u2014 one, a much-needed humbling, and two, we got to see Topuria go through the fire a bit, and he did his best to battle through it with a seriously broken, well, FACE.<\/p>\n
Lee: Not No. 1, but it\u2019s the first one that will come up in most fans\u2019 minds for the next five years at least.<\/p>\n
Upset conversations tend to be generational, with names like Matt Serra, Holly Holm, Michael Bisping, Sean Strickland, and Fabricio Werdum typically dominating the conversation, depending on who you ask and when you ask them. For me, nothing will ever beat Serra knocking out GSP, mainly because the circumstances of that matchup even happening can never be replicated, but in modern MMA, Gaethje\u2019s triumph is about as good as it gets.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Miracle on the Mat.<\/p>\n
Meshew: A lot of people aren\u2019t going to agree with me, but when you consider everything, I think it\u2019s the biggest upset of all-time.<\/p>\n
From an odds standpoint, this is certainly not the biggest, as Gaethje was a huge dog, but not to the level of Holly Holm against Ronda Rousey, or Matt Serra against George St-Pierre. And from long-lasting historical standpoint, this is probably not as significant as Holm functionally ending Ronda Rousey, and ushering in the slow decline of women\u2019s MMA in the UFC.<\/p>\n
But there are a couple of factors that Gaethje has that those two upsets lack. First, there is the stage. Serra and Holm pulled off monster upsets on big, pay-per-view stages, but, frankly, generic numbered UFC cards don\u2019t quite rate against the FREAKING WHITE HOUSE. This entire card will be one of the most-discussed events for years on end, both inside and outside of MMA circles, and Gaethje was the star of it. And an American star pulling off an all-time upset at the White House is not quite Miracle on Ice, but it\u2019s up there.<\/p>\n
And then you add in the fact that Gaethje is a beloved figure. Nobody really cared much about Holly Holm or Matt Serra when they pulled off their upsets. That is not the case with Gaethje. \u201cThe Highlight\u201d is in that Michael Bisping tier of fighter, where never winning an undisputed belt would have been a blemish on his career, but not an irreparable stain. He was still going in the Hall of Fame (several times over) and still the most exciting fighter to ever live. He just never quite got the ultimate prize.<\/p>\n
Well, no longer. To paraphrase Dr. Ian Malcolm, the crazy son of a bitch did it.<\/p>\n
3. Is anyone ever going to become a three-division world champion in the UFC?<\/p>\n
Heck: I\u2019m sure it will happen someday, but not anytime soon. There are weight classes for a reason, and I feel like we can stop the three-division talk for the foreseeable future. Pereira got badly finished by Gane, and Topuria may never be the same after getting battered by Topuria.<\/p>\n
Now, if we can just keep champions in their divisions defending over and over and over again forever, nothing would make me happier.<\/p>\n
Lee: Yes, it\u2019s inevitable, especially in this current era of title dilution. There was a time when becoming a two-division UFC champion was this rare, special thing, and now we have almost a dozen of them on record. It\u2019s only a matter of time until someone with the perfect body type and skill set finds that magical formula with the right run of opponents and pulls it off. Maybe it will even be someone on the women\u2019s side, where there\u2019s just a 20-pound difference between strawweight and bantamweight (though Zhang Weili found out the hard way how much of a disadvantage just 10 pounds on the scale can be).<\/p>\n
Or maybe Islam Makhachev just jumps up to middleweight next year and does the damn thing.<\/p>\n
Meshew: Once again, I\u2019m taking the opposite line: no. It will never happen in the UFC. At least, not while these are the weight classes. I think there are a very limited number of fighters who could have done it had they gotten the chance in a previous era, but as the sport continues to improve, it\u2019s a nearly impossible task.<\/p>\n
Look at boxing. In the sweet science, you basically have to win titles in multiple weight classes to be considered a legitimately great fighter, but the weight classes are substantially different. Most multi-division champions won belts in tweener divisions (welterweight and junior welterweight, etc), and did so for a few of the belts, not a unified title.<\/p>\n
Only two boxers in history have been undisputed champions across three weight classes: Henry Armstrong and Bud Crawford. Armstrong did it in three of the full-on weight classes, while Bud did it in light-welterweight, welterweight, and super middleweight. And this is a sport that\u2019s well over 100 years old. It\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n
4. Aside from Gaethje, who was the biggest winner of UFC White House?<\/p>\n
Heck: I\u2019m taking the low-hanging fruit, it\u2019s Ciryl Gane, and it\u2019s not particularly close.<\/p>\n
This was one of those fights where, with a deep dive, it became quite fascinating on paper. The more I watched of both guys, the more I felt like this was a pretty damn good matchup for Gane on paper. I certainly didn\u2019t expect Gane to do THAT in a massive spot against Pereira, but he did it, and it was so impressive.<\/p>\n
My other big takeaway is that this version of Gane, should he beat Aspinall in the rematch (and I\u2019ll pick him to do so after what I saw on Sunday night), \u201cBon Gamin\u201d might mess around and be heavyweight champ for a really, really long time.<\/p>\n
Lee: UFC production team: 1. Mother Nature: 0<\/p>\n
Arguably, the biggest storyline of the week revolved around the inclement weather that threatened to delay and possibly even outright cancel Sunday\u2019s event, with Dana White and lead producer Craig Borsari having to answer numerous questions about what the UFC\u2019s contingency plans were if hellfire and brimstone rained down from the heavens. And what if someone swallowed a bug???<\/p>\n
In the end, White and co. benefited from miraculously good conditions, with the UFC CEO saying afterwards it was as if the looming storm literally split in half and avoided their $60 million setup. And hey, lucky or not, proper preparation prevents poor performance.<\/p>\n
Meshew: The band was pretty cool, but I think this picture says more than I could ever put into words.<\/p>\n
5. Who was the biggest loser at UFC White House?<\/p>\n
Heck: It\u2019s Derrick Lewis, unfortunately.<\/p>\n
Look, I don\u2019t believe many expected Lewis to win here, but there certainly appeared to be a chance for him to win, and that\u2019s what the MMA masses were hoping for. Maybe Lewis can land one giant lunchbox on an over-aggressive Josh Hokit and become a hero. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the midway point of Round 1, the story had already been written.<\/p>\n
Lewis has had one amazing career. A fantastic story, fan-favorite, two-time title fight competitor, and done so with a limited skill set. \u201cThe Black Beast\u201d is one of the great overachievers in the sport, with very few having anything negative to say about him. But it was tough to watch Lewis in there with Hokit and Waldo Cortes-Acosta in January. Maybe we find one or two age-appropriate matchups for funsies, but it doesn\u2019t appear like Lewis will be put in many more big spots in his UFC career.<\/p>\n
Lee: Josh Hokit, you were so close to having a moment.<\/p>\n
Already entrenched in the top 5 of the anemic heavyweight division, Hokit had a golden opportunity to further boost his profile with a favorable matchup against Derrick Lewis. He took care of business in the cage, beating Lewis handily, then the worst possible thing happened: Hokit was given a microphone.<\/p>\n
After a forgettable promo capped off by a callout of Alex Pereira, Hokit then made a senseless and disgusting comment about former First Lady Michelle Obama. Just like that, Hokit made sure the first thing everyone will remember about his UFC White House fight is not that he\u2019s a heavyweight contender, but that he\u2019s a racist (he made a similar comment about WNBA star Brittney Griner. You do the math). I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s just \u201ctrolling.\u201d You continually choose racist rhetoric, guess what? You\u2019re a racist.<\/p>\n