Trump Says White House Will Host a UFC Championship Fight as Part of U.S.’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

In 2026, as part of festivities surrounding the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the White House will be home to a top-ranked UFC mixed martial arts fight, President Donald Trump said.

“We’re gonna have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there,” Trump said Thursday evening at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, wearing a red “USA” baseball hat. He suggested that the UFC will construct an octagon somewhere on the White House property for the fight.

The UFC event will be a “championship fight, full fight, like, 20, 25,000 people,” Trump continued. “And we’re gonna do that as part of 250 also,” referring to America250, the organization set up to commemorate the country’s semiquincentennial.

A UFC spokesperson confirmed to Variety that the company planning to stage an event at the White House, saying additional details will be forthcoming.

The site for America250 says the celebratory events “will foster shared experiences that spark imagination, showcase the rich tapestry of our American stories, inspire service in our communities, honor the enduring strength, and celebrate the resilience of the United States of America.”

UFC CEO Dana White is a well-known supporter and friend of Trump, who has attended multiple UFC events in recent months. “I’ve had this incredible relationship with him for many years,” White told Variety last year. “You know, when we first bought , the stigma was so bad with the UFC that venues didn’t even want us. He reached out, cut a deal, showed up to the first fight, stayed to the last fight.”

White was featured in Trump’s first TikTok video in 2024, which showed the president greeting fans at UFC 302 in Newark, N.J., on June 1, 2024. “The president is now on TikTok,” White says in the video. “It’s my honor,” says Trump.

White spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention (after having done so in 2016 as well), where he said in part that “it’s critically important to re-elect President Trump,” whom he praised as “one of the most loyal human beings I have ever met” and claimed that, “Before the pandemic, President Trump built the greatest economy in our nation’s history and created opportunities for all Americans like no one before him.”

In 2023, Endeavor merged UFC and WWE under the publicly traded TKO Group Holdings. Earlier this year, Endeavor was taken private earlier this year in a $25 billion deal with private-equity firm Silver Lake; Endeavor Group is the parent of talent agency giant WME Group. Endeavor Group Holdings currently owns 61.7% of TKO’s outstanding stock.

Pictured above: President Donald Trump at UFC 314 at Kaseya Center on April 12, 2025, in Miami, Florida.