Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier admit to both having been excited by the prospect of the UFC holding an event on the grounds of The White House next year, but after having time to reflect on it they are starting to wonder how feasible it’s going to be in reality.
“What would the build-out be for that?” Sonnen wondered aloud on the Good Guy / Bad Guy show this week. “I mean thinking about what [UFC event producers] [Craig] Borsari and [Zachary] Candito got to go through to bring in—I guess you’re going to raise a stadium because [Trump] stated a number of 20,000 people by the way. So now you’re talking about bringing in an amphitheater for one night only.
“It’s an interesting concept, and I guess as time has gone by, I’ve taken it more serious. I took it almost like an announcement. I guess there’s an announcement that we’re going to do a UFC on the grounds of The White House. I guess?”
Meanwhile, DC wondered how difficult it would be from a security perspective to allow tens of thousands of people onto the grounds of The White House.
“When he said they’re going to do a UFC event at The White House, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s exciting,’” Cormier said. “Then I started to think for him to just come to a fight, all the hoops that we go through as people that work for the company. The Secret Service is in the arena the day before. We all have to do so many other things, background checks—because the president’s going to be there—as we should.
“Imagine trying to put 25,000 at The White House. They’re going to go through all those steps for all those people.”
Sonnen agrees, and also points out that everyone who would be involved in constructing the arena would also have to go through security checks too, which would in turn slow down the whole building process.
“I think that the guys and gals from the locker room that have helped raise to this occasion, I believe those are the ones that you’re going to see fighting if they do set up an amphitheater in the back of The White House, which by the way is a tremendous ask of anybody,” Sonnen said. “Go build a venue? ‘Hey, look, see that over there. Build a venue. Oh, by the way, in the most high-security place ever.’
“Do you know how long it would take to get I-beams in? You’re trying to bring in your cement trucks, you’re trying to bring in your audio guy. Do you know what they would have to go through and they’re talking they’re going to have this done by July?”
In the end, the more he thinks about it, the more Cormier is starting to question whether it’s actually a good idea to go ahead with the event.
“I think that we as a country can do whatever we want. America. You know I love it, I love my red, white, and blue. I don’t know that the effort it will take to make that happen is going to be worth the squeeze almost. I just don’t know.
“And it’s going to be outside? In July? It gets hot in Washington in July.”
