Why is Trump promoting a UFC fight event at the White House?

A temporary fighting arena was set up in the garden of the White House
AFP via Getty Images
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, will watch this Sunday (14) a sequence of mixed martial arts fights (a modality known by its English acronym MMA, for mixed martial arts) in an arena built in the middle of the White House.
According to the Republican, the spectacle will be "the greatest show on Earth".
MMA was banned in most American states 30 years ago, but with these restrictions already suspended long ago, the combat sport will be on full display, in a sign of its growing popularity and political influence.
Held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), today one of the largest MMA organizations in the world, the event will feature 14 fighters, who will face each other in the gardens of the residence
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Among them is Brazilian Alex "Poatan" Pereira, who faces Frenchman Ciryl Gane in the dispute for the interim heavyweight belt.
Donald Trump
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The show was called UFC Freedom 250 and aims to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary, celebrating the "American fighting spirit".
Critics questioned whether The event, which coincides with Trump's 80th birthday, is a fitting celebration of US independence.
An opposition group even filed a lawsuit alleging that it was a "flagrant misuse of our sacred national monuments."
The magnitude of the preparation is proportional to the controversy. The arena's 28-meter-high steel structure completely altered the landscape of the White House's South Lawn.
It is designed to accommodate about 4,000 spectators, while another 85,000 people are expected to watch on giant screens at the nearby Ellipse park.
The image of fighters exchanging blows under the windows of the Oval Office is not just an isolated event - it is the culmination of a quarter-century-old alliance.
To understand how this sport reached the main political space in the United States, it is necessary to go back to a period when both the UFC and Donald Trump were in completely different situations.
The arena set up in the White House garden for the UFC fight this Sunday (14)
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The driving force behind the event is the 25-year friendship between Trump and UFC president Dana White.
When White and his partners bought the struggling organization for $2 million (R$ 10.1 million) in 2001, the sport faced strong political reaction. Just five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had declared MMA to be "human cockfighting," which led to a ban on fighting in 36 states.
"Nowhere wanted [the UFC]," White told BBC's U.S. partner CBS in 2025.
"They didn't believe in it. They didn't like it and they were worried about the kind of crowd that would show up for that kind of event."
Excluded from traditional arenas, White credits Trump credited with saving the organization by hosting two UFC events at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City in 2001.
With the introduction of strict regulations and rules, as well as the use of protective gloves, the sport finally freed itself from its illegal status.
The company was sold for US$4 billion (R$20.2 billion) in 2016 and valued at US$12 billion (R$60.7 billion) in 2023, making this weekend's event on the south lawn of the arena a personal celebration for both.
Brazilian Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane face each other before the fight that will take place on the White House lawn
Getty Images
The event at the White House is a calculated strategy to reach a crucial profile of voters.
The vast majority of UFC fans are men under 30 - a group that strongly supported Trump in the last election, although recent polls suggest his approval among them has waned.
Katie Zacharia, a former Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman and conservative commentator, told the BBC that the event could attract young men and convey a message of "positive masculinity" in response to what she called "the fragility introduced by the far left."
She also rejected the threats. criticism directed at the event, stating that the UFC's principles "are the kind of principles that founded our Constitutional Republic."
"It's about not giving up the fight until the end," she said. "I think there's no better encapsulation of the American spirit than a good UFC fight."
Two critics of the event - a Virginia-based Vietnam War veteran and a local civic activist - tried to stop it with a last-minute lawsuit, but a judge ruled it could go ahead.
The lawsuit, filed by the anti-corruption law firm Public Integrity Project, alleged that the event was "deeply corrupt," citing Trump's financial interests in TKO, the UFC's parent company, and his close ties to White.
"This is a case of corruption," said Brendan Ballou, founder of the Public Integrity Project, in a statement to the BBC, citing the sale of sponsorship packages, broadcast rights and advertisements at the White House and the Lincoln Memorial.
"The fundamental question we need to ask as a country is whether we want to use our most sacred national monuments to enrich the president and his allies. We believe the answer to that question itself."
It is well known that Trump has financial ties to White. the UFC, with public records showing that he purchased between US$15,000 and US$50,000 (between R$60,700 and R$253,000) in TKO shares in March this year.
But the White House rejected any possibility of wrongdoing, pointing out that Trump's assets are in a trust fund managed by his children and stressing that there would be no "conflicts of interest".
UFC lightweight fighters Mauricio Ruffy and Michael Chandler joined face during the weigh-in
Getty Images
- Cost: The UFC claims to be investing US$60 million (R$303.7 million) to hold the event - including US$700,000 (R$3.5 million) to restore the grass on the south lawn - and does not expect to make a profit.
- Guest list: The audience at the arena is expected to be made up of government officials, military personnel and special guests. Audiences who signed up for free tickets will stay in the area reserved for fans, a space known as the Ellipse, located in a nearby park.
- Security: Local authorities must spend between US$10 million and US$12 million (R$50.6 million to R$60.7 million) in federal funds on security and road closures.
- How to watch: The event begins on Sunday night at 8pm (Brasília time). It will be broadcast exclusively on Paramount+ in the US, a service run by Trump ally David Ellison. In Brazil, the broadcast will be on Paramount+ (pay-per-view) starting at 9 pm (Brasília time).
- The fights: The 14 fighters will be the first athletes to compete professionally in the gardens of the White House. The all-male group will headline Ilia Topuria defending her lightweight title against Justin Gaethje.
UFC President Dana White with Donald Trump
Getty Images
It's not uncommon for presidents to hold major events on the South Lawn of the White House, from country fairs to jazz festivals, in addition to the annual Independence Day celebrations and traditional Easter egg hunts - but the scale and content of Sunday night's event are quite different.
"I think we can use the word 'unprecedented' here," Edward Lengel, former chief historian at the White House Historical Association, told the BBC.
"There were many different episodes of entertainment at the White House, but they were usually musical or performance. There really had never been anything like this before."

Source: G1