Amber Searls-Imagn Images
After years in the making, the UFC officially hosted its “Freedom 250” event on the White House lawn on Sunday evening, highlighted by a stunning main event between Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria for the lightweight championship.
The event largely went off without a hitch following a brief delay due to the weather. However, UFC president Dana White wasn’t exactly optimistic when asked whether the promotion could return to the White House in the future.
In fact, White was fairly demonstrative in terms of shutting down the idea.
Dana White Says The UFC Will Never Fight At The White House Again
“In every way you can measure success … it was monstrous tonight. You don’t get calls from billionaires flipping out too often,” White told members of the media after the event.
Despite that fact, don’t expect the UFC to return to the White House anytime soon.
“I don’t ever want to f—king be outside again,” he said. “There’s just too much.”
The simple reasoning comes down to finances. Front Office Sports reports that the UFC is expected to lose $30 million on the event, with extremely limited seating and the fights being shown on Paramount+ rather than the company’s old pay-per-view model.
“I can’t afford it,” he said in a post-fight press conference when asked about staging another White House event. “There’s no f—ing way we can do this again. I’ll never do the Sphere again, and we’ll never do this again.”
Beyond that, the fight card was highly divisive among sports fans, with some praising the idea, while others slammed it for being overtly political and the brainchild of President Donald Trump.
“This event was for America’s 250th birthday. There was no other political agenda for the event, or anything like that,” White claimed. “…I was just honored to be the person [Trump] trusted to deliver tonight. I hope that everybody, as an American, feels that we did.”
Even despite that honor, it’s seemingly not enough to get White to repeat the feat in the future.