The UFC will be part of the U.S. government’s America250 celebrations on July 4, 2026 by hosting a card at the White House, UFC CEO Dana White confirmed on Tuesday.
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White told The Associated Press that the event “is absolutely going to happen” and it will take place at the presidential home in Washington D.C.
“Think about that, the 250th birthday of the United States of America, the UFC will be on the White House south lawn live on CBS,” White said.
The event would be the first professional sporting event hosted at the White House in U.S. history, though there have been many recreational events.
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White told “CBS Mornings” that he spoke with President Donald Trump on Monday and plans to meet with him and Ivanka Trump later this month to finalize plans for the event.
“When he called me and asked me to do it, he said, ‘I want Ivanka in the middle of this,'” White said. “So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities, where it would be and, you know, I put together all the renderings.”
The confirmation of the historic UFC card comes during a week where the mixed martial arts company announced a seven-year streaming deal with Paramount worth $1.1 billion a year.
No fighters announced yet for White House event
The most notable volunteer among fighters was Conor McGregor, who has not competed in the UFC since 2021 but visited Trump at the White House in March, months after being found liable for rape in a case that ended a number of business relationships. The Irishman said “I would be honoured! Count me in!”
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Such a spectacle would be the culmination of a decades-long relationship between White and Trump, who hosted multiple UFC events for the promotion at a rocky time in its early history. The president is a frequent attendee of major UFC events, where he usually receives a warm reception from the sport’s right-leaning fan base.
White has also appeared at multiple events for Trump, such as introducing him at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Their private conversations have also come up in the past, such as when Trump said he proposed a UFC-style league just for migrants to White.
