{"id":701474,"date":"2026-06-13T09:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701474\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T09:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:46:11","slug":"video-ilia-topuria-spoils-surreal-staredown-by-laying-hands-on-justin-gaethje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701474\/","title":{"rendered":"Video! Ilia Topuria Spoils Surreal Staredown By Laying Hands On Justin Gaethje"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The biggest event in mixed martial arts (MMA) history will go down this weekend as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hosts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\/427538\/ufc-white-house-fight-card-start-time-date-and-location-freedom-250\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Freedom 250<\/a> from the White House South Lawn LIVE on Paramount+ from Washington D.C., but first all the fighters took to the stage for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/e\/449617\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">final pre-fight press conference<\/a> at the Lincoln Memorial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Leading Sunday\u2019s event will be a headlining act between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and interim titleholder Justin Gaethje. Adding to the mix will be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-events-ppv\/449593\/alex-pereira-vs-ciryl-gane-odds-full-fight-preview-and-prediction-ufc-white-house\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">co-main event<\/a> pitting former two division UFC champion Alex Pereira against perennial heavyweight contender Ciryl Gane for the interim strap. It will be a chance for \u201cPoatan\u201d to make UFC history and capture his third title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Luckily, Sunday\u2019s historic card will feature much more. This includes Octagon appearances by UFC stars such as Sean O\u2019Malley, Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal, Diego Lopes, and the ultra-controversial Josh Hokit. They were all in attendance \u2014 along with UFC CEO Dana White \u2014 for Friday\u2019s pre-fight press conference from the Lincoln Memorial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Check out the final press conference staredowns below and let us know who has the edge entering this weekend in D.C.!<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Sean O\u2019Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Derrick Lewis vs. Josh Hokit<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For more UFC White House fight card news and coverage click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest event in mixed martial arts (MMA) history will go down this weekend as Ultimate Fighting Championship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[50994,99,303287,50995,303288,10080],"class_list":["post-701474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc-press-conference","tag-ufc-videos","tag-ufc-white-house-2026","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}