The most audacious media spectacle in recent memory took place on the grounds of Madison Square Garden, less than two weeks after the 2024 presidential election.
On November 16, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump entered New York’s most famous arena to rousing applause from a friendly crowd, while playing Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass.”
Trump was in attendance at UFC 309, joined by Rock, Elon Musk, and new Cabinet secretaries Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, among other dignitaries. But when he pulled out, he did so alongside Dana White, the CEO of the UFC.
Amid the fights, Trump took a moment to make a suggestion to White, a longtime personal friend dating back to the early days of the UFC.
“He leaned over to me and said, ‘We’ve got to have a fight in the White House,'” White recalled in an interview with Newsweek. Hollywood Reporter. I said: Yes, we should. I didn’t know what he meant…I was thinking maybe there was room to think about where we were going to get it. He was like, ‘No, we’ll do it outside on the South Lawn.’
“when [White] I initially mentioned the idea of holding a UFC event on the South Lawn of the White House, and I didn’t really buy it. “I thought he was joking,” says Craig Borsari, the UFC’s chief content officer.
“He’s funny, but he’s not some kind of joke,” White says of Trump. “Literally, when he says something, consider it done.”
And so that improvised proposal will become a reality on June 14, when the MMA promotion hosts UFC Freedom 250 in a specially designed arena on the South Lawn of the White House, a made-for-TV (or at least via livestream) event the likes of which have never been seen before, and may never happen again.
A series of cage matches, set in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world, in front of an audience expected to include some of the most powerful people on Earth, including political leaders, celebrities and global CEOs, with UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings (led by CEO Ari Emanuel) betting on “Super Bowl-level” media exposure, and a defining moment for the startup’s $7.7 billion deal with Paramount Skydance (led by CEO David Ellison).
“This will be one of the greatest and most historic sporting events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision for celebrating America’s 250th anniversary,” says White House spokesman Davis Engel.
However, the UFC Freedom 250 event is a bit of a gambit for all involved due to its high profile and expensive bet by TKO, which covers all costs, from building the temporary arena and hospitality structures to replacing the turf after the event. Aligning this profound sport directly with the Trump White House also puts the UFC in the middle of a politicized culture war at the precise moment it will be exposed to the highest level of the general public.
“Losing money is never fun,” White says. “I did it for a few years in the early days, but you have to take a chance like that, no matter what it costs you.”
Mark Shapiro, president and chief operating officer of TKO, told Wall Street analysts in February that the event would cost the company “in excess of $60 million,” and that it “could move north.” TKO expects to lose about $30 million at UFC Freedom 250, even after landing high-profile sponsorship deals from the likes of Ram Trucks, Crypto dot com and Monster Energy.
“I want to be clear about one thing: We will not profit from the event at the White House independently. We will not make money on America’s 250th anniversary,” Shapiro said. “This is a long-term investment. It’s about earned media.”
“It’s about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, and the on-stage spectacle that will ultimately expand our audience, viewership, and success on Paramount+,” he added. “We view this once-in-a-lifetime milestone as a strategic investment to boost Paramount+ subscriber acquisition, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media worldwide.”
Paramount expects to take full advantage of this moment, six months into its seven-year contract. Efrain Miron, head of content strategy and licensing at Paramount’s direct-to-consumer news business THR The company was already monitoring the data closely.
“One of the really cool things about seeing this UFC audience — and again it’s not a monolith, but it’s the audience that has emerged so far — is that we’ve found that on average, the people watching UFC on Paramount+ are 15 years younger than our average pre-UFC audience, so for us, this is a huge eye opener,” he says. “Then we also notice what they see when they appear on the platform. So far, some of these signals have been really interesting. You have a lot of crossover with South Park audience, so that was interesting for us. And then we take all this information and say, okay, how do we make sure that this audience gets the right service recommendations when they show up?
The goal is to get UFC fans to watch more content on Paramount+, introduce more fans to the UFC and grow that business, helping to amortize the cost of the long-term deal.
Borsari says his team was in almost daily contact with Paramount executives in the lead-up to the event at the White House.
“I love the excitement on their part, how excited they are to work with us,” White says. “I think… Landman It is the greatest show ever in the history of television.
But what’s even more important for the UFC is how Paramount+ dramatically reduces the friction of watching its fights. A White House event file could make that clearer to people who weren’t familiar with what the change in streaming platforms really means.
“When we were broadcasting on ESPN, we were behind two pay-per-view systems. You had to pay for ESPN+, and then you had to pay for pay-per-view,” White says. “With the Paramount+ deal, it costs less over the course of the year than it would for a single pay-per-view, and you get everything the UFC does plus you get all the other great programming.”
Executives from both TKO and Paramount are counting on tremendous chemistry, from both hardcore MMA fans and curious hackers, to ultimately benefit both.
Late last month, a massive structure was erected on the South Lawn, overlooking the White House mansion beyond, sparking curiosity on Instagram, X, and other social media platforms.
The structure is called “The Claw,” White says, and was built in Belgium before being shipped to Philadelphia, where it was loaded onto trucks and transported to D.C.
The custom structure was specifically designed to provide White’s view of the event, providing cover and lighting without obstructing any views.
“All I want to see during this fight is the White House, the entire White House,” White says. “I don’t want to see a light or a microphone or any kind of equipment, and if the fight goes the other way, I want to see [WashingtonMonument]that’s it. “Those are the only things I want to see.”
“There are a number of things we do to try to leverage our place and show a lot of respect and admiration for this site, which is one of the most iconic buildings in America,” Borsari says. “We had to make a number of visits to the White House to take very precise laser measurements of the south lawn to make sure we could put in the structure we wanted. The whole idea of putting this structure in place was to create the largest window possible and frame the White House in the background in all of our wide shots throughout the night.”
The company is planning similarly made-for-TV moments, such as a press conference and weigh-in at the Lincoln Memorial, and there will be an 85,000-ticket fan festival held at the Ellipse next door to the New York City complex. Eggs, with the Zac Brown Band on June 13, and a battle viewing party the following evening.
It’s unclear whether one of the original ideas, which would have fighters exit the Octagon from the Oval Office, will come to fruition, although the UFC has created custom championship belts for the winners of the bouts.
Fan Fest tickets have been distributed free to fans, but tickets to the event itself remain rare and available by invitation only. White says the lion’s share goes to Trump. “I think it’s up to 1,200 now. I have 300, Ari Emanuel has 400.” The remaining tickets will be distributed to military personnel.
But White and Borsari were also planning programming that would fill the downtime between fights. Typically, in an arena, this would include loud reels, loud videos, and loud music. UFC Freedom 250 will be a little different.
White was coy about what else they had planned that night, though a heavy dose of national programming was expected.
“It’s a very patriotic moment for us to integrate a little bit into the history of this country, a little bit to celebrate our heroes and celebrate our independence,” Borsari says.
“What this fight is really about, and why we’re having it at the White House, is that it’s the 250th anniversary of the birth of America. So, from the first fight of the night to the main event, we’re going to tell America’s story,” White says, dismissing the idea that he wants the event to be seen as a political event. “You have the far right, you have the far left, and people think this is going to be some kind of political thing. This is America’s 250th birthday. This is the story we’re going to tell. If you’re an American, this is important to you as an American. Everybody, no matter what your politics are, or any of this other bullshit.”
Of course, the political optics are hard to ignore. After all, the event was launched at the suggestion of President Trump, will be held on his 80th birthday, and is expected to be attended by a slew of prominent members of Congress and his administration.
Paramount is also in the midst of trying to complete a massive $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which is still undergoing regulatory review. The event may not be about politics, but politics will still be humming in the background regardless.
Trump, of course, is an avid consumer and critic of the media, which may explain his enthusiasm for the event, knowing how unprecedented it is.
On May 6, he hosted the fighters competing in the event in the Oval Office for a photo op, displaying his arena designs in front of one of the custom championship belts. Trump recalled giving White and the UFC a chance at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, before mixed martial arts was widely accepted as a legitimate sport.
“They couldn’t get to any arenas because it was so intense,” he recalls. “I was able to give them the first four or five fights.”
Of course, there are still many unknowns.
White recalls attending a Rose Garden dinner last month, a dinner that opened his eyes to the challenges of hosting an outdoor fight series in Washington, D.C., in June.
“The three big problems, as far as I can see now, are rain, lightning, and lots of bugs,” White says, recalling the black mosquitoes (“I’m talking about swarms of them”) swarming dinner guests.
“As soon as I left the White House, I called my friend, the head of production, Craig [Borsari]“The black fly experience I just had was a brutal one,” he adds. “So imagine this huge, powerful claw, and the lights that would come with it, you would have mosquitoes, moths, maybe bats. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen, but you know those are all the things you need to think about before this thing.
He points out that fighting outdoors is not ideal, especially if the weather is very hot or very humid. This has also raised concerns Joe Rogan, the podcast host, comedian and UFC commentator, who will be moderating the event.
However, Rogan remains convinced by the idea, and is embracing the unprecedented nature of the whole thing.
“It’s going to be a spectacle,” Rogan said on his podcast on May 29. “Whether I was there or not, I would 100 percent watch it. I think it’s great that he’s Trump, and that’s one of the things I love about him. He’s like, ‘Fuck, let’s do it.’ He’s getting into cage fights on the White House lawn. That’s crazy. He’s fearless.”
Trump, whose personal interest in shaping media presentations has been documented, appears to share this view. Speaking to the UFC fighters at the Oval, he turned to the cameras in the room and said matter-of-factly: “This is going to be the greatest show on Earth.”
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