WASHINGTON — With plenty of spectacle, tens of thousands of attending fans, some narrowly averted weather threats, and U.S. President Donald Trump in attendance, UFC pulled off its controversial Freedom 250 event.
The seven-bout fight card proceeded as scheduled Sunday night, just avoiding the type of thunderstorm that produced the 75-minute weather delay before Friday’s often-bizarre press conference at the Lincoln Memorial. An often-lively crowd chanted and cheered through the humid evening’s action—both in a custom-made arena for 4,300 on the White House South Lawn and at the adjacent Ellipse, where another 85,000 were expected.
“The Claw”—the 92-foot apparatus that loomed over the White House, covered the octagon, and is the centerpiece of the setup—was fully illuminated for the evening, bringing an entirely different feel to The People’s House. Each fighter started his ceremonial walk-out to the octagon from inside the White House.
In the fight card’s featured match, involving massive amounts of build-up throughout the evening, Justin Gaethje upset the favored Ilia Topuria in a lightweight unification bout that easily lived up to the hype.
Before the fights began, Freedom 250 saw further disruption. MMA announcer Daniel Cormier posted on X, and then quickly deleted, a text exchange with Eric Trump in which the president’s son attempted to press him for inside betting information on the fight card, and even asked if any fights were “rigged.”
“I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for bringing this to light, however I refuse to stay silent,” Cormier said in the now-deleted post. “The UFC is a sport that I am deeply passionate about. I will not tolerate this type of insider behavior. Shame on anyone trying to ruin this beautiful event.”
Political Overtones
As Freedom 250 was first conceived by Trump and he has been a close friend to UFC president Dana White for more than 20 years, it was impossible to separate the event from its surrounding politics.
UFC and parent company TKO Group Holdings insisted that Freedom 250 was not a MAGA event and it was “for everybody.”
There were plenty of contradictory signs to that sentiment on Sunday, though, beyond the saga between Cormier and Eric Trump. During a preliminary fan fest at the Ellipse, professional wrestler and social media influencer Logan Paul loudly greeted the crowd with an exhortation of “Republicans as far as the eye can see!”
President Trump, celebrating his 80th birthday Sunday, kicked off the evening’s formal proceedings by appearing on the White House balcony with White. After making his way to the octagon from the Oval Office with White, Trump settled into a cage-side seat.
Before then, the White House’s Rapid Response social media team even pushed back angrily on a post from The Weather Channel earlier Sunday detailing the evening’s unsettled forecast.
“This event is about celebrating America’s unmatched greatness after 250 years—which apparently doesn’t sit well with the friendless loser who wrote this bullshit clickbait headline,” the White House said in a social media post in response to The Weather Channel. “Rain or shine, we’re celebrating our great country, no matter what.”
The U.S. Department of Defense, called the Department of War by the Trump Administration, also ran a recruitment ad during the Paramount+ broadcast of Freedom 250. That same department also tightly controlled the attendance around the octagon, reserving most of the seats for military members meeting stated body composition standards. Most of Trump’s cabinet also attended.
Though the immediate area around the White House and Ellipse was tightly controlled with security, there were small groups of protesters objecting to the spectacle and Trump Administration policies.
Fight Metrics
Despite the scale and spectacle surrounding Freedom 250, there will be plenty of red ink for UFC from the event.
Earlier this year, UFC projected a $30 million loss from the weekend after $60 million in development costs, and those estimates remain intact. The MMA promotion ticketed the event, but was not able to charge fees for fans to attend. UFC did sell about $30 million in sponsorships, including one to prediction market Polymarket—a key player in a burgeoning industry that Trump has criticized.
Sunday’s fight, meanwhile, aired solely on the Paramount+ streaming service, and was not shown on linear television. Paramount+ had 79.6 million subscribers as of Paramount’s last earnings report in early May, and upcoming financial disclosures will provide a window into the impact Freedom 250 has on that total.
“We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe,” TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro said earlier this year in a recent earnings call.
