Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Some of the world’s most powerful leaders have convened at the annual G7 Summit for over 50 years. This year, France will host a gathering that was initially slated to kick off on June 14th, but the date has been changed because of a UFC event that will take place at the White House that night.
America will celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, and last year, we were treated to an unexpected announcement on the eve of Independence Day when Donald Trump announced the White House would be serving as the site for a slate of UFC bouts.
Dana White confirmed the event was officially in the works a couple of months later. That kind of production involved plenty of logistical issues that still needed to be ironed out, but the organization teased a vision that would involve fighters taking part in weigh-ins on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and stands erected around an Octagon situated in the middle of the White House lawn.
There’s still some work to be done, as it’s unclear if the UFC will be able to organize the “eight or nine championship fights” Trump says will be on the card (which would mean all but a handful of the 11 fighters who currently hold a title across the men’s and women’s divisions would be defending their belt).
What we do know is the event will be held on June 14th (which is also the president’s 80th birthday), which resulted in a scheduling issue that’s had a slight impact on a major international event.
France pushed the start of the G7 Summit due to the UFC event at the White House
In 1973, finance ministers representing the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and what was then “West Germany” convened to discuss the oil crisis stemming from OPEC’s decision to impose an embargo.
The initial meeting of what was dubbed the “Group of Five” became an annual tradition that eventually welcomed Italy and Japan into the fold to form what is now known as the “G7” (it was the G8 when Russia joined in 1997 before being booted in 2014).
Those countries have met on a yearly basis every single year to discuss various economic and political matters at the G7 Summit where other nations are occasionally invited to have a seat at the table, and France was named the host of the upcoming gathering that was supposed to get underway in Evian-les-Bains on June 14th, 2026 and wrap up on the 16th.
However, according to Politico, it will now be held from June 15th to 17th after organizers were forced to push the start to accommodate the fights at the White House.
A representative for French President Emmanuel Macron did not confirm that was the reason while saying the adjustment was “the result of our consultations with G7 partners,” but the outlet spoke with multiple sources who said the UFC event was the onus for the change.
What a world.