President Trump has revealed that the UFC’s plan is to have eight or nine title fights on the card when they hold a historic one-off event at the White House in June next year to celebrate the 250th anniversary of United States Independence.
“We’re going to have a lot of events,” President Trump said at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Gala on Sunday. “One of the things you’re going to have here is some of the UFC press. You’re going to have the fighters coming over, talking about the fights. It’s a big deal. The UFC on June 14. It’s going to be June 14th next year. They’re building an arena. The great Dana White is building an arena, and they’re going to have eight or nine championship fights, the biggest fights they’ve ever had. Every one is a championship fight, and every one is a legendary type of fight. He’s actually holding back fights right now for six months so he can do it for 250.
“I think 250 is going to be amazing. I think the arena is going to have five or six thousand seats, right in front of the front door of the White House, and 100,000 people in the back, where they’re putting up eight or 10 very big screens. That’s going to be an exciting night. So many people are asking for tickets.”
If Trump’s claims prove to be true, 8-9 title fights would certainly eclipse anything the UFC has attempted to do in the past, with three titles being as many as they’ve ever put on a single card.
It’s a strategy that’s not without potential problems though, not least of which being the one casually mentioned by the President, in that it would mean keeping multiple title fights on ice for the first half of the year, which would hold up divisions and lead to a lot of watered down cards in the months leading up to it.
Beyond that, in terms of pacing it’s always a risk when putting on several title fights due to the fact that each runs for a possible 25 minutes rather than the standard 15. With the high stakes involved when a title is on the line that does tend to lead to more strategic pacing and cardio management, rather than just the kind of balls to the wall action that many fans tuning in for an event of this magnitude might be anticipating.
Another potential problem is that this event will be a celebration of the United States, yet very few current champions in the promotion are actually from the country at this moment in time.
In fact, of the 11 divisional champions only the women’s strawweight and bantamweight champions Mackenzie Dern and Kayla Harrison are from the United States, and Harrison still has a massive title showdown with female GOAT Amanda Nunes at UFC 324 in January to get past first before she can even think about the White House event.
That being said, there is technically a 12th titleholder who is from the United States, due to the symbolic ‘BMF’ title fight held by Max Holloway.
It does raise the question though as to whether the UFC might then consider leaning towards pushing fighters from the United States forward for title contention on the White House card, which would certainly be somewhat controversial if others were believed to be more deserving of the opportunity.
That being said, it should be noted that White recently claimed that their plan isn’t to make the event ‘America vs. The World’, and rather focus on putting on the best line-up they can.
So there are a clearly lot of factors that the UFC will have to take into consideration if they do go down this route.
They’ve still got time to weigh up the pros and cons though as Dana White has previously said that they won’t start making fights for the event until February.
