{"id":704551,"date":"2026-06-15T01:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T01:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704551\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T01:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T01:13:09","slug":"donald-trump-celebrates-80th-birthday-with-ufc-show-on-white-house-lawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704551\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump celebrates 80th birthday with UFC show on White House lawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Fueled by a dose of high-octane patriotism, President Donald Trump and UFC boss Dana White walked out from the Oval Office to chants of \u201cUSA!\u201d to greet military members and political dignitaries set to watch one of the more surreal spectacles in sports and even in the nation\u2019s capital: cage fighting<\/a> on the White House lawn.<\/p>\n

A long-time fight fan with a 25-year professional relationship with White, Trump turned 80 on Sunday and fans gathered on a gloomy night on the South Lawn cheered when one fan yelled out \u201chappy birthday!\u201d <\/p>\n

Diego Lopes and Steve Garcia opened UFC Freedom 250 in a featherweight bout under the structure known as the Claw, a four-sided mass that arcs more than 90 feet (27 meters) into the air and features lights, speakers, thick snakes of wiring and four large screens so fans not seated right next to the Octagon can follow the cage fighting below.<\/p>\n

Garcia walked out of the White House draped in an American flag and accompanied by two police officers. Lopes walked out to the Mexican song \u201cLa Chona.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show was steeped in pageantry and stands as an outlier among UFC events. The Marine Band played from in front of the White House and Zac Brown sang the national anthem \u2014 which is never played before normal UFC fight cards because of the mix of nationalities fighting inside the Octagon. The Navy\u2019s Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds zipped overhead as part of a flyover.<\/p>\n

Bruce Buffer\u2019s voice thundered from the cage as always for fight introductions, and his star-spangled threads fit the occasion: gold stars on the outside of his suit coat and mini American flags stitched inside.<\/p>\n

Hours after the United States and Iran reached an agreement to end the war<\/a> and open the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since fighting began, the White House \u2014 long known as the people\u2019s house and a symbol of American democracy \u2014 opened its backyard to stage the fights. <\/p>\n

More than $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been poured into building the arena, according to a court filing from the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn. <\/p>\n

UFC is staging seven fights<\/a> with all male fighters<\/a> under the Freedom 250 banner to celebrate Trump\u2019s birthday<\/a> and the 250th anniversary<\/a> of the Declaration of Independence\u2019s signing.<\/p>\n

The fight card<\/a> headlined by two title fights on Paramount+ was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Eastern. The official televised portion of the show started closer to 30 minutes later and the first fight went off closer to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Strong thunderstorms and heavy lightning disrupted Friday\u2019s Lincoln Memorial promotional event, and the forecast for Sunday evening also looked menacing. <\/p>\n

White said the show will go on rain or shine. <\/p>\n

The rare UFC outdoors event marked the pinnacle of the relationship between White and Trump<\/a> that has yielded personal, political and financial dividends for both parties. White\u2019s first card as UFC president came in 2001 at an event held at Trump Taj Mahal.<\/p>\n

Trump has attended four UFC cards as sitting president, walking to the cage amid rock music and patriotic chants from fans much like the fighters themselves. White introduced Trump at two Republican National Conventions. White also attended the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner in April that was cut short by a shooting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a card that has been panned by fans online as underwhelming, Alex Pereira of Brazil will meet Ciryl Gane<\/a> of France for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion Ilia Topuria<\/a> then takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje<\/a>, one of just two Americans who currently hold even a share of the UFC\u2019s 11 championship belts.<\/p>\n

There are five other fights on the main card that include former title-fight participants Michael Chandler and Derrick Lewis<\/a> and former 135-pound champion Sean O\u2019Malley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not everyone was able to get tickets to the big event.<\/p>\n

Even one of UFC\u2019s champions.<\/p>\n

UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland was escorted out of the Ellipse event by a group of police officers and taken into a Park Police van Sunday.<\/p>\n

Once a vocal supporter of Trump, Strickland has recently said on social media that he was not invited to participate in the event at the White House because he is an outspoken critic of Israel.<\/p>\n

Strickland was wearing a black anorak jacket and was barefoot. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear why law enforcement led him away.<\/p>\n

White has rejected Strickland\u2019s accusation that he was banned from UFC Freedom 250 events.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is banned. Nothing is banned,\u201d White told reporters earlier this month.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MMA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mixed-martial-arts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Fueled by a dose of high-octane patriotism, President Donald Trump and UFC boss Dana White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[301853,116832,304375,9852,3506,208049,3505,12,793,231664,801,228242,203305,303850,1576,71333,111,304376,274091,99,6648,210369,795,31830],"class_list":["post-704551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-250th-anniversary-of-american-independence","tag-alex-pereira","tag-bruce-buffer","tag-dana-white","tag-dc-wire","tag-diego-lopes","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-michael-chandler","tag-military-and-defense","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-politics","tag-sean-omalley","tag-sean-strickland","tag-sports","tag-steve-garcia","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-u-s-news","tag-zac-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704551","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=704551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}