UFC President Dana White will stage the event, the president said.
President Donald Trump said on July 3 that the White House could host an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event next year as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Americaโs Declaration of Independence.
Trump told supporters at a โSalute to Americaโ event in Des Moines, Iowa, that the federal government plans to mark the occasion with a yearโs worth of events, adding that โevery one of our national park battlefields and historic sitesโ would host special events to mark the anniversary.
โI even think weโre going to have a UFC fight,โ Trump said. โWeโre going to have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there. Weโre going to build a little, weโre not, Danaโs going to do it. Danaโs great. One of a kind.โ
UFC President Dana White is a close friend of Trump.
Trump added that the event at the White House would be a โUFC fight, championship fight, full fight,โ with between 20,000 and 25,000 people in attendance.
The president said there would also be other professional and amateur events held over the next year to mark the 250th anniversary of the countryโs founding on July 4, 2026, including a youth sporting event dubbed the โPatriot Gamesโ which he said will feature top high school athletes from all 50 states.
โItโs going to be great,โ Trump said, without providing additional details.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the planned UFC event in a statement on the social media platform, X, writing, โItโs going to be epic!โ
Trump, who is known in the mixed martial arts world as the โCombatant in Chief,โ has been a regular attendee at UFC fights, most recently attending one in New Jersey in June.
In 2001, he hosted the mixed martial arts events โUFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalkโ and โUFC 31: Locked and Loadedโ at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which has since closed.
He also celebrated his election victory in November by attending a UFC event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.