Dana White maintains that UFC Freedom 250 is an apolitical event, but a former UFC lightweight stalwart has called him out on some facets of that characterization. The UFC figurehead was touching on the looming Summer event during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, with a clip provided by X account @ChampRDS, as White said,
“We’re paying the entire bill on all of this, everything you’re saying. Not one dollar of tax payer money will go into this. This is the UFC’s gift to the 250th birthday of America. I think one of the myths that I would like to crush is, I don’t care if you’re far right, far left, right down the middle, wherever you sit politically, because everybody sits somewhere politically these days, this isn’t about politics.”
“This is about the United States. What this country’s about, how it was built, where we all came from. If you love America, you’re gonna love this event. It has nothing to do with politics. We just happen to be on the White House lawn and the president of the United States will be there.”
In a retweet of this X posting, Gray Maynard put White in his proverbial crosshairs and poked holes in what the brash combat sports promoter was positing on McAfee’s program, as Maynard stated,
“Just to be clear. June 14th is NOT America’s birthday. It’s Trump birthday, it also happens to be flag day. Which doesn’t mean s**t about birthdays. This is a fight card for his king Trumps birthday. Not America So was the bulls**t waste of money military parade. It was on June 14.”
Dana White on Donald Trump’s role in a recent UFC White House bout booking
Dana White and Donald Trump are tied to this unique event on June 14th, with the latter playing a role in arranging a last-minute heavyweight matchup for that event.
At UFC 327, Josh Hokit secured an emphatic and entertaining win over Curtis Blaydes, with White mentioning that around an hour before that fight, Trump asked why Derrick Lewis was not on the UFC White House card. Filling out the rest of the details of this timeline during the post-event press conference in Miami, White stated [via USA Today],
“I went and called Derrick Lewis, said the president wants to know why you’re not on the White House card. And Derrick Lewis said, “Politics. Politics kept me off the White House card.” And I said, ‘Do you want to fight on the card?’ And he said, ‘I absolutely want to fight on the card. Tell the president thank you.’”
“Then the Hokit fight happens and Joe Rogan, I had the headphones on. Joe Rogan goes, ‘Is there another slot open on the White House card for Hokit? And I go, ‘Holy (expletive).’ So I grabbed Mick and I said, ‘Go back there and talk to see if he’s in.’ And Hokit was getting into an ambulance and said yes.”