{"id":1483,"date":"2026-06-15T19:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:41:43","slug":"well-never-do-this-again-ufc-ceo-dana-white-says-white-house-fight-night-was-too-expensive-to-do-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=1483","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019ll never do this again\u2019: UFC CEO Dana White says White House fight night was too expensive to do it again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\u201cIt was an amazing, experience, this was a one-of-one,\u201d UFC CEO Dana White said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Oh, not because the show dubbed Freedom 250 and ostensibly held to celebrate Trump\u2019s\u00a080th birthday\u00a0and the\u00a0250th anniversary\u00a0of the Declaration of Independence\u2019s signing wasn\u2019t by White\u2019s accounts a smashing success. He crowed about merchandise sales and streaming service subscriptions and how UFC surpassed its goals in every metric he could list at a news conference that stretched well into the dawn\u2019s early light Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=1481\">\u2018Fix this code\u2019\u2014The three little words behind the U.S. government decision that shut down Anthropic\u2019s Fable and Mythos AI models<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And the setting?<\/p>\n<p>Forget it, almost impossible to top on a night when fighters essentially treated their walkouts like they were kids on a class trip. The all-male lineup toured the West Wing, the Oval Office, walked past presidential portraits, through the Roosevelt Room, the Cabinet Room \u2014 and the winners even got a meet-and-greet with Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Gaethje skimmed the copy of the Declaration of Independence that hangs in the Oval Office and said a prayer before he made the unusually long walk to the cage. Gaethje battered Spanish-Georgian fighter Ilia Topuria in the main event and won the UFC lightweight title.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cUsually, I kind of blank out when it comes to getting ready to walk to the cage,\u201d Gaethje said. \u201cIt was pretty crazy, looking at the Declaration of Independence. The original one. Their language was different. I\u2019m not smart enough to read that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaethje also banked a whopping $825,000 in bonus money for winning \u201cPerformance of the Night\u201d and \u201cFight of the Night\u201d honors.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Trump stayed until the end of the seven-card show and generally seemed engaged with the fights \u2014 at one point he put on a white \u201cUSA\u201d baseball cap \u2014 and certainly was all smiles each time a fighter who had a hand raised in victory then used it on a handshake with the president.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Trump boasted on Truth Social the night was \u201cPERFECT!\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There were few blips on the big night and the blemishes that did happen were at the expense of UFC\u2019s two more problematic fighters.<\/p>\n<p>UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland was escorted out of the\u00a0Ellipse watch party\u00a0attended by thousands more fans by a group of police officers. Heavyweight Josh Hokit took it further with an extraordinary and unfounded attack\u00a0based on a right-wing conspiracy theory\u00a0about former first lady Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n<p>For all the hand-wringing ahead of the card, the show delivered on the star-spangled smackdown that featured pulsating patriotism from the Marine Band, tributes to first responders, active military and other White House-designated heroes. Gaethje and Ciryl Gane were crowned champions inside a blood-splattered eight-sided cage plopped in the open air right in the people\u2019s house backyard on the South Lawn.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=1479\">Here\u2019s how SpaceX\u2019s debut stacks up against other major IPOs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blood and guts were a mandate before an American fighter wrapped himself in the flag.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cHopefully tonight created some unity,\u201d White said as he put on his hyperbolic promoter\u2019s hat. \u201cEven for the people that thought this was going to be some big political statement or something, this wasn\u2019t. This was Americans, all Americans celebrating the birthday. For people who tuned in for the first time, because it was at the White House, hopefully they liked the sport. They liked some of the guys\u2019 stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So maybe some new fans stick around.<\/p>\n<p>After all, International Fight Week is right around the corner, with UFC 329 set to mark the return after a five-year break of the company\u2019s biggest box office draw, Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n<p>That fight will be held in a more traditional arena back on UFC\u2019s home turf in Las Vegas, just as they will for years to come.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But despite all the pomp and pageantry, the eyerolls and angst, White stands by his claim that UFC is one-and-done in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>The constant headaches over weather concerns in the rare outdoors show, the logistics of construction of the cage and staging events at federal landmarks and the soaring cost \u2014 UFC said it was footing the $60 million tab \u2014 made Freedom 250 a one-off for a company once dubbed \u201chuman cockfighting.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t afford it,\u201d White said. \u201cI\u2019ll never do the Sphere again and we\u2019ll never do this again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=1476\">Gene Shalit, who made film criticism a television institution, dies at 100<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UFC cage erected on the White House lawn will &#8220;never happen again&#8221; given how expensive it was for the UFC to put on in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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