UFC Is Coming to the White House. Here’s What You Need to Know

On June 14, President Donald Trump will celebrate both his 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding with the country’s greatest spectacle: several hours of undoubtedly bloody cage fights on the White House ’s South Lawn. The event is the culmination of a long relationship between Trump and the UFC ’s president, American businessman Dana White .

Trump, in turn, has been both Dana White and the sport of MMA’s biggest fan for decades. “Everyone has their thing, and Donald Trump’s thing is the UFC,” White told Rolling Stone . In recent years, the UFC’s rising popularity has helped White establish something of a chokehold on American culture, as his sport is integral to the increasingly right-leaning “manosphere.” MMA now sits at the nexus of American politics and culture. A fight at the heart of the capital, then, was almost inevitable — all Donald Trump had to do is ask. Rolling Stone will be at the fights in June, but until then, here’s everything we know. In short, because Donald Trump asked them to. Plans for a UFC event at the White House started about a year ago, when Trump privately suggested to White that they hold an event in D.C. White described it as an offhand comment while both men were sitting cageside at an event in South Florida, but it quickly became a reality as preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding ramped up. The longer answer is a bit more complicated. White and Trump have been friends since the early 2000s, when Trump allowed White to host several of his first UFC events at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Trump also became a huge fan of the sport, sitting cage-side for every fight during those first few events. The two men’s relationship deepened when White agreed to introduce Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Key points

• Trump, in turn, has been both Dana White and the sport of MMA’s biggest fan for decades.
• “Everyone has their thing, and Donald Trump’s thing is the UFC,” White told Rolling Stone .
• In recent years, the UFC’s rising popularity has helped White establish something of a chokehold on American culture, as his sport is integral to the increasingly right-leaning “manosphere.” MMA now…
• A fight at the heart of the capital, then, was almost inevitable — all Donald Trump had to do is ask.
• Rolling Stone will be at the fights in June, but until then, here’s everything we know.