(The Hill) Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief Dana White said over the weekend that multiple fighters are in line to be on the list for a face off expected next year on the White House South Lawn.
“Everybody wants to be on this card. I mean, you don’t even have to know who’s blowing up my phone,” White said Sunday during a post-fight press conference at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. “You can just see it all on the Internet.”
“But, you know, the fight’s a year away, so the landscape will change a lot over the next year,” he added.
President Trump, who attended a UFC fight earlier this year with allies and members of his Cabinet, floated the idea of a fight on the South Lawn weeks ago as part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration. The proposal comes as the Trump administration grows the corporate presence on White House grounds.
The UFC move comes after Trump held an event for Tesla on the South Lawn earlier this year when he purchased an electric vehicle alongside then-ally Elon Musk in a statement to those protesting the automaker— in addition to the first ever corporate sponsored White House Easter Egg roll.
“We’re going to be on the South Lawn, and literally, when you’re watching the fight, this will all be the White House here, and then behind me will be, you know, the Washington Monument,” White said during the news conference.
“We’re just getting into logistics right now. My team has already walked the White House with the staff there, and now we’re putting together the design,” the UFC chief added. “And then we’ll all fly out to D.C. and sit down with [Trump] and see what he wants to do.”
White confirmed the fight will be pay-per-view but didn’t outline any matchups ahead of the South Lawn show.
Earlier this month, the president suggested the event would be a full “championship fight” and could host up to 25,000 people.
