Donald Trump promised that June’s event would bring us some of the greatest fights in history. The truth appears to be rather different
W
hen Donald Trump first announced that the White House would host a UFC event to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, the US president told supporters it would be a “big deal”. Evidence over the last week suggests that, not for the first time, Trump may be exaggerating a little.
Trump has promised a spectacle unlike anything the UFC has staged before. “They’re going to have eight or nine championship fights – the biggest fights they’ve ever had,” Trump said in December of plans for the White House event. “Every one is a championship fight, and every one is a legendary type of fight.”
The UFC was just as bullish, with CEO Dana White promising “the greatest fight card ever assembled”; a “one-of-one incredible opportunity” to put on the “baddest card of all time”. The hype surrounding the event feels even more obnoxious when you consider that it is being held in honor of a president whose administration has overseen a brutal immigration crackdown during which two US citizens were killed, alienated many of its former allies and engaged in dubious military actions abroad.
