Andrew Ravens
Dana White is setting lofty expectations for UFC Freedom 250. Speaking with UFC on TNT Sports ahead of Sunday’s event at the White House in Washington, the UFC CEO said he is targeting Super Bowl-level viewership for the card, which is headlined by a lightweight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje.
“For UFC fans all over the world, this is a unique experience for everybody,” White said. “We’re expecting Super Bowl-type numbers for this fight.”
The Super Bowl is the most-viewed sporting event in the United States annually, making White’s benchmark as high as it gets in American sports media. Topuria enters at 17-0 in MMA and 9-0 in the UFC, while Gaethje carries a record of 27-5 in MMA and 10-5 in the UFC. The co-headliner features Alex Pereira taking on Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight belt, with Pereira bidding to become the first three-division UFC champion.
White has a track record of delivering major production moments. The UFC was the first major sports organization to run events during the COVID-19 pandemic, hosting shows on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi when the rest of the sports world was shut down. More recently, the UFC was the first to host a sporting event at the Sphere in Las Vegas, an event that won two Sports Emmy awards. White believes the White House event surpasses even that benchmark from a production standpoint, and he made no attempt to hide his frustration at the industry’s failure to recognize it accordingly.
“I said the Sphere should have won every award there is in production — it did not,” White said. “Which doesn’t surprise me: Very political. If we don’t win every production award for the White House fight, they should stop doing production awards because you’re full of sh-t. You’re full of sh-t.”
UFC Freedom 250 streams live on Paramount+ on Sunday.
