{"id":478006,"date":"2026-06-15T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/478006\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:00:11","slug":"ufc-freedom-250-cyril-gane-justin-gaethje-crowned-champions-at-trumps-white-house-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/478006\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Freedom 250: Cyril Gane, Justin Gaethje crowned champions at Trump\u2019s White House event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe ring and the White House are seen during UFC Freedom 250
\nPhoto: ALEX BRANDON\n<\/p>\n

Politics aside, UFC Freedom 250 delivered in the cage.<\/p>\n

An historic occasion with the first ever professional sporting event at the White House on US President Donald Trump’s birthday, the event saw seven spectacular finishes in a truly surreal setting.<\/p>\n

Fears of thunderstorms threatened to curtail the card, but no such weather arrived with two new champions closing the show,<\/p>\n

Alex Pereira’s bold bid for three-division-champ status came up short, as the power of Cyril Gane proved too much.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the main event, Justin Gaethje showed why he is often regarded the most violent man in the most violent sport.<\/p>\n

Taking on the unbeaten Illia Topuria for the lightweight strap, The Highlight battered the champion’s face so badly his corner was forced to throw in the towel after four rounds.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Josh Hokit hype train continues to chug along as he put away the greatest knockout artist in UFC history, while the Suga Show looks as though it may get a second run after Sean O’Malley finished Aiemann Zahabi with a walk off knockout.<\/p>\n

See how the full event unfolded below:<\/p>\n

\"(L\/R)<\/p>\n

\nPresident Trump is in attendance with his wife Melania.
\nPhoto: KENT NISHIMURA\n<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ring and the White House are seen during UFC Freedom 250 Photo: ALEX BRANDON Politics aside, UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-478006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}