UFC Boss Says Cage Fight Is Seriously Coming to the White House

Gizmodo

a day ago

An absurd UFC cage fight on the Southern Lawn of the White House looks like it might actually happen.
UFC CEO Dana White told The Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay on Monday that plans for the match are moving forward and he is already picturing fighters 'warming up in the White House.'
President Donald Trump first floated the idea back in July, saying it would be one of many celebrations planned for the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.
'This is so monumental and historical and just such a cool thing,' White told The Wall Street Journal. 'All I care about is the Octagon on the lawn and the fight happening with the backdrop being the White House and the Washington Monument.' And it'll all be broadcast 'probably on CBS,' he added.
White confirmed plans for the fight just days after the UFC inked a multibillion-dollar deal with Paramount. The agreement signals a new chapter for the storied media conglomerate, which is now helmed by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison.
Paramount struck a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with UFC's parent company TKO Group this week for exclusive U.S. media rights to all UFC matches starting next year. The company's streaming service Paramount+ will be the home for 13 major events and 30 'Fight Nights' every year, with some fights also being simulcast on CBS.
It's Ellison's first major deal as the leader of Paramount. After years of on-and-off talks, Ellison reached a deal last year to merge his movie studio Skydance Media with Paramount Global, which owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon, and MTV. The deal was finalized last week.
It's still unclear how much the new Paramount will change, but the UFC deal and other recent moves suggest it will have a cozy relationship with the Trump world. In July, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump accusing the CBS news show 60 Minutes of editing an interview with Kamala Harris. CBS denied any wrongdoing.
Stephen Colbert, host of CBS's The Late Show, called the settlement a 'bribe' to the Trump administration to clear the way for the Paramount-Skydance merger, which was being reviewed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) at the time. Shortly after, Paramount announced it would end The Late Show next year, insisting the decision was purely financial.
The FCC ended up approving the merger last month. As part of getting the agency's approval, Ellison told FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that the company has ended its DEI initiatives and that CBS News would commit to installing a 'truth arbiter' to monitor the company's content for 'bias.'