© Bruce Fedyck-Imagn Images
Dana White expects to win several sports Emmys for his UFC White House event.
For the past few weeks, the UFC has been building a large claw-like structure that will light up the Octagon on the South Lawn of the White House during its event on June 14th.
According to ESPN, the claw was built in Europe and was customized to fit the South Lawn of the White House.
Via ESPN
Built and owned by a Belgian event staging company called Stageco, which has offices in Colorado and Pennsylvania, the 600-ton, 154-foot-wide behemoth looks like the picker end of an arcade crane game, but it’s anything but a simple apparatus. Its steel framework is filled with large beam lights — the lighting grid also has some aluminum components — and is covered by a 100-by-100 foot canopy over the top.
THE CLAW’S GIVEN name is not “the claw.” At Stageco, it is known as “beta tent,” and it typically lives in Europe. Stageco devised the structure for the 2017 Lowlands festival, a three-day music and camping festival in Biddinghuizen, Netherlands, headlined by Mumford & Sons and The xx.
“Stageco has done quite a few claw structures,” Nick Rivas, the operations manager of Stageco U.S., told ESPN. “And by that I mean we do arches or arcs perpendicular to themselves so it looks like a claw.”
On Sunday, a week before the event, White and his team turned on the claw.
🚨 Dana White confirms construction of ‘The Claw’ for the UFC White House event is complete 👀
(via @danawhite) pic.twitter.com/EN0oxsvFrx
— RAMAYAN (@ramayan_69) June 8, 2026
Last night they tested the UFC stage lighting at the White House. Check it out.
The People’s House is looking more like a Six Flags amusement park after dark. It’s embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/g01qOB6jBD
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) June 8, 2026
While speaking to TNT Sports, White believes the UFC’s production team should win every major production award in the next year for the work they’ve done to make the UFC White House event possible.
“If we don’t win every production award for the White House fight, they should just stop doing production awards because they’re full of sh-t”
Dana White says if the UFC White House event doesn’t win every major production award, then the awards are rigged. 👀
“If we don’t win every production award for the white house fight, they should just stop doing production award because they’re full of sh*t”
(via @ufcontnt ) pic.twitter.com/s6T0eMTArF
— FREAK.MMA (@FREAKMMA1) June 8, 2026