Fan-Fest 250
The UFC on the White House Lawn is (mostly) unprecedented in the USA, but with a good bit of history behind it, royal and otherwise.
Not Much Bread, but Lots of Circus
As the New York Times and other media reported, metal arches and beams have begun to tower over the South Lawn of the White House, as construction crews erect the stage for a temporary open-air mixed martial arts octagon. Renderings posted by the UFC over the weekend on the X formerly known as Twitter show a star-spangled arch over the cage, framing the White House in the background, a military brass band flanking the arena, presumably belting out a host of favorites and standards. Three cheers for the Red, White, and Blue! Woot Woot!
The spectacle - the first of its kind for White House - has been dubbed “UFC Freedom 250” and is scheduled for June 14, 2026, Trump’s 80th birthday. Trump said the immediate area around the arena would hold more than 4,000 people, including dignitaries, members of Congress, donors, handpicked guests of the President, and some lucky members of the military. Ringside seats are being offered for $1.5 million, and include some VIP perks, like access to the ceremonial weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial and tickets to a welcome reception. On the White House Ellipse grounds up to 100,000 additional spectators will be able to watch for free as part of a “U.F.C. Freedom 250 Fan Fest”.
The event will air on Paramount+ (where else?), with a limited number of preliminary bouts broadcast on CBS (where else?).
U.F.C.’s president Dana White, in an interview with the NYT, said Trump brought up the idea while the two of them attended an event together. Trump supposedly said: “We should do a fight at the White House…I think it would be great to have an event for America’s 250th.”
And here we are.
Nothing against cage fighting, mixed martial arts, or “human cockfighting”, as Senator John McCain referred to it, but we haven’t really experienced anything like this at the White House. Comparisons to the film Idiocracy have been pretty common fare for critics of this administration, but this time it looks like Trump actually went there.
A History of Royal Nonsense, and Catchin’ a Bull Moose by the Horns
Emperor Constantine famously connected the Great Palace of Constantinople directly to a Hippodrome, Henry VIII built a cockfighting pit in Whitehall, Emperor Moctezuma II had a massive, elaborately decorated Teotlachco (ballcourt) inside his royal palace precinct in Tenochtitlan, but here in the United States, we’ve never really had quite anything to compare.
Except we have had some informal pugilistics inside the White House.
Teddy Roosevelt was notorious for wrestling and sparring with guests, including his own military aides, political figures, and even foreign dignitaries. Once, during a state luncheon, he threw Swiss ambassador Fernand du Martheray to the floor to demonstrate a judo hold. He also wrestled and sparred with family members, including his wife and sister-in-law. The White House basement floor was laid out with mats so he could work out. He hired professional trainers, including Japanese judo master Yoshiaki (Yoshitsugu) Yamashita, to teach him jiu-jitsu and judo in his White House office.
Unfortunately, during a sparring match in 1905, military aide Col. Daniel T. Moore landed a punch that permanently detached Roosevelt’s retina, leaving him nearly blind in his left eye. Roosevelt, admitting it was "absurd for a President to appear with a black eye or a swollen nose," largely gave up his boxing and hard-hitting wrestling routines, focussing afterwards on the jiu-jitsu and judo.
William Howard Taft was a quieter sort than Roosevelt and his contribution to sports at the White House was limited to moving Roosevelts tennis court to its current spot on the South Lawn in 1911. Eisenhower was a bit more adventurous and installed a 3,000-square-foot putting green and sand trap right outside the Oval Office in 1954. George H.W. Bush built a small outdoor half-court basketball court in 1991. Bill Clinton had a quarter-mile outdoor jogging track on the grounds when he was President. In 2009, Obama added full-court basketball lines and removable hoops to the main White House tennis court to host pickup games.
None of this is quite the same as an outdoor, concert-style UFC arena on the South Lawn with over 100,000 guests, and tennis and basketball courts aren’t much good for chariot races, but all of it rhymes a little bit with history.
What’s new here, what strikes us as new, is that it seems gaudy and out of step. It’s flashy, it’s loud, it’s aggressive, it’s weirdly over-the-top for a Presidential birthday party, and it’s not everyone’s idea of an appropriate celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the country.
Maybe the most we can be thankful for is that at least this time the fighting is going on outside of the White House, and the President isn’t participating.
Or, maybe he should jump in the ring. We might start betting on the fights again.
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