Jason Burgos
During the broadcast of UFC 326, the UFC finally announced the fights for the highly anticipated UFC White House, AKA UFC Freedom 250, card in June.
Last year, of all people, President Donald Trump was the first to reveal plans for the MMA world leader to produce an event on the lawn of the White House. It offered the promotion an opportunity to make history that even massive leagues like the NFL, MLB, and NBA can’t match.
Unsurprisingly, the UFC aimed to make the most of what could be the most-watched event in fight sports history by trying to stack the card with some of the best fights they can put on right now. Of course, there has been a lot of speculation about what those fights could be. Well, the discourse on the bouts for the UFC White House card can end.
Gaethje vs. Topuria will headline the UFC White House card
During the broadcast of the main card for UFC 326, the promotion revealed the full slate for the June 14 event. All six fights, including two championship bouts, can be found below.
- Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje – Lightweight Title Unification
- Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane – Interim Heavyweight Title
- Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi
- Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler
- Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus
- Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia
Lightweight champion Ilia Topuria revealed last month that he had settled his outside-the-cage issues recently and was ready to return to the cage ASAP. That will happen in a unification clash with interim champion Justin Gaethje in the main event of the UFC Freedom 250/UFC White House card.
However, the fight many will be looking forward to is former two-division champion Alex Pereira moving up to heavyweight to face former interim champion Ciryl Gane for more interim gold. A win for “Poatan” would make him the first fighter in UFC history to win titles in three divisions. The victor will then face lineal champion Tom Aspinall, hopefully, later this year.
Early reports claimed there could be as many as six title fights at the event. Obviously, the final results came nowhere close. Fans will also wonder about the matchup that CEO Dana White confirmed fell through on Friday night.
