On June 14, a UFC cage fight was held on the White House Lawn. Dubbed “Freedom 250,” the event sought to commemorate the United State’s 250th anniversary. President Trump’s 80th birthday also happened to be the day of the event.
The event featured a highly competitive roster, with 5 current or former champions appearing on the main card. It was headlined by the lightweight division championship, the Spanish double-champ Illi Topuria vs former interim champion and current challenger Justin Gaethje. The co-main event is similarly high-profile, with former lightheavy-weight champion Alex Pereira faced off against Heavyweight champion Cyril Gane.
Nonetheless, the event came under criticism for being held on the White House lawn, with massive construction towers building the stadium. Trump stated the event would include a: “5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House.” There were no general-admission tickets—the event was invite-only.
Though, besides the rain, the event was at risk of being cancelled due to a last-minute lawsuit filed by the watchdog group, Public Integrity Project, on the grounds that the event violated National Parks and Services rules barring sporting events on Federal Parklands. The White House, however, dubbed the lawsuit as: “baseless.”
The event has drawn passionate reactions from B-CC students. Sophomore Emille Williamson expressed his profound disagreement with the event as being too political. “I’m a huge fan of the sport, but I don’t really want it having anything to do with politics at all…I much prefer the sport to be more impartial,” Williamson stated.
Additionally, Williamson suspected that the event came about largely due to UFC president Dana White’s stalwart support for Trump, explaining:“the current president and the president of the UFC have been very good friends for a long time…the clear favoritism is definitely very visible.”
Overall, the fights were an attempt to celebrate the country, and its milestone anniversary, but brings with it a lot of not necessarily positive discourse.
