After months of fielding questions about this spring’s White House fight card, UFC CEO Dana White on Saturday announced a six-fight slate for Freedom Fights 250, set for June 14 in Washington, D.C., on the White House South Lawn. At the top of the card, lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and interim champion Justin Gaethje will clash for the right to be called “undisputed.” Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane will meet for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event.
Twelve men — none named Jon Jones or Conor McGregor — won the White House sweepstakes and will have the opportunity to showcase their fight skills at the nation’s capital. ESPN reporters Brett Okamoto, Andreas Hale and Jeff Wagenheim reviewed the lineup and give their initial thoughts on the best fights, the missed opportunities and what the makeup of this historic event tells us about the state of the UFC.
On paper, where does this card rank among the UFC’s best ever?
Wagenheim: White promised that this would be “the greatest fight card ever assembled,” and the UFC CEO should have known better. After all, he was the promoter behind six of the seven UFC events that featured three championship fights. Those were the promotion’s highest-stakes events, and sitting just below them are the many fight cards through the years with two championships on the line. This event on the South Lawn — with one title fight and an interim title fight between Pereira and Gane that’s essentially a World’s Fourth-Best Heavyweight trophy — simply doesn’t measure up to the lofty expectations White created while trying to sell the UFC’s plans.
Okamoto: Not very high, but that’s less a knock on this card and more a nod to the great history of cards that have come before it. Let’s just be honest, every time there is a big moment in the sport, it can’t always compete with all of the other great moments before it. There have been plenty of better lineups over the past 30-plus years, with bigger headlines, bigger storylines and more depth top to bottom. But that doesn’t mean this card is bad.
Topuria at the top is outstanding. He has been out of the mix for a minute, so it’s easy to forget how absolutely on fire he was last summer when he knocked out Charles Oliveira and became a two-weight champion. Sure, Jones or McGregor would have been a bigger headliner, but neither of those two is anywhere close to the fighter Topuria is right now. If Tom Aspinall wasn’t injured and Pereira was challenging for the undisputed title, that would have added a lot. As things stand in the MMA landscape, the card is strong and features an American underdog in the main event, which feels appropriate.
Hale: The slate is fine, and maybe even above average, but the reveal felt underwhelming. There aren’t any mind-blowing fights that people might have been anticipating (Islam Makhachev vs. Topuria; McGregor vs. Michael Chandler; Jones vs. Pereira, etc.). Instead, the card is filled with solid, but unspectacular, matchups. Don’t get me wrong, there are some intriguing matchups, but this doesn’t even crack the top 10 UFC events of the 2020s.
What does the makeup of the card tell you about the state of the UFC?
Wagenheim: The cupboard is not bare, but it sure could use some brighter lightbulbs shining inside there, if the UFC hopes to move beyond being a niche sport. When your biggest star is a guy who hasn’t fought in five years (McGregor), your second biggest is coming out of retirement in a different promotion (Ronda Rousey) and your third biggest is someone the boss doesn’t trust to headline this White House show (Jones), you’re not ready to penetrate the mainstream. There are many immensely talented fighters in the UFC, some of whom are on this card, but the general sports public knows practically none of them.
Okamoto: The UFC is a little needy on stars, but we’ve known that for a while. The UFC isn’t making stars like it used to, and I don’t see that changing. For one, the UFC schedule has averaged 40-45 events a year, constantly competing for our attention for close to a decade. Filling 14-fight cards with different names every week affects the promotion’s ability to make stars, but its valuation as a business has never been higher. It has proven it doesn’t need to rely on individual stars to succeed.
Which matchup is the most impactful?
Okamoto: Have to go with the main event. It’s tempting to say otherwise and try to go outside of the box, but right now, Topuria is one of the few mega superstars the UFC might have on its roster. His combination of fighting style and charisma (and undefeated record) is truly rare. If he wins this fight in spectacular fashion, with the U.S. White House as a backdrop, he has an opportunity to gain so many new fans. The next step for Topuria after a win could very well be a move up to challenge Makhachev in what would be the biggest fight the UFC could make, potentially as soon as the end of the year. And on the flip side, Gaethje, the American underdog, in his third and final shot at an undisputed belt? The main event is easily the most impactful match.
Hale: Pereira vs. Gane, by far. Pereira may not be fighting Jones, but he is competing for an unprecedented third title in a third weight class. It may not be the undisputed crown, but Pereira moving up from middleweight to light heavyweight to heavyweight to capture a third world title is history-making. “Poatan” is already a star, but now he’s inching his way toward becoming a legend.
Which matchup will steal the show?
Okamoto: Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler. No-brainer. Say whatever you want about Chandler’s record as of late, he’s entertaining. He’s all gas, no brakes, even to his detriment at times. Ruffy is legit one of the most beautiful fighters to watch in the game right now. He is the embodiment of the martial “art.” Chandler is going to go right at him and let the chips fall where they may. It’ll be a firefight as long as it lasts.
Wagenheim: As always, my rule is that if Gaethje is on a fight card, his fight is automatically the No. 1 attraction. That he’s facing Topuria, ranked No. 2 in ESPN’s pound-for-pound top 10, makes this clearly the fight. But if we’re being technical and “steal the show” means to overshadow the headliners, I guess I’ll point to the co-main, which features ESPN’s pound-for-pound No. 2, Pereira. His opponent, Gane, isn’t exactly Mr. Excitement, but he’s not going to wrestle Pereira, so we will get to see “Poatan” in his natural element.
Which matchup isn’t on the card that should be?
Hale: A women’s title fight. The obvious answer is Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes, but neck surgery has Harrison, the women’s bantamweight champion, on the shelf for the foreseeable future. But the UFC couldn’t find one fight to spotlight the women of MMA on this card? No Mackenzie Dern strawweight championship defense against Zhang Weili or Valentina Shevchenko flyweight defense is a real missed opportunity.
Okamoto: Paddy Pimblett vs. Arman Tsarukyan. You know the one thing this card is missing? Drama. Who is going to go after it and make waves at the fight week news conference? Who’s going to provide fans (old and new) that story of bad blood? Pimblett and Tsarukyan are two of the most entertaining fighters in the sport right now, outside of competition. If the UFC had put them against each other as the third fight on the main card, they would have gone at each other, and they would have taken shots at Topuria. And they would have backed up the main event as two top-tier lightweights who could have stepped in if something had happened to either Topuria or Gaethje.
Wagenheim: Honestly, I’m fine with exactly what the UFC has planned for Washington. There are bigger fights out there, but they belong in a different capital — the fight capital of Las Vegas — and another appropriate venue for the grandest displays of fisticuffs: Madison Square Garden in New York. The White House is a setting for pomp and circumstance, and that’s what this spectacle is about.