Key events2h agoStorm forecast delays first fight to 9pm ET2h agoTonight's order of play2h agoPreambleBo Nickal and Kyle Daukaus are in the octagon for second of seven fights tonight, a middleweight contest scheduled for three rounds. Nickal, the three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion viewed as one of the UFC’s brightest prospects, faces a difficult test against the streaking Daukaus, who has won six straight fights.Bo Nickal walks out for his middleweight bout against Kyle Daukaus. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APOne of the UFC’s biggest stars appeared to have his freedom infringed upon earlier Sunday. Middleweight champion Sean Strickland was escorted from the Ellipse viewing area by multiple law enforcement officers and placed into a US Park Police vehicle in an incident that drew attention from nearby spectators. Strickland, who was wearing a black jacket and no shoes, offered no immediate explanation as he was led away and authorities have not publicly commented on the circumstances.The episode comes after Strickland spent recent weeks publicly claiming he had been excluded from UFC Freedom 250 because of his criticism of Israel. Dana White has repeatedly denied those allegations, telling reporters earlier this month that “nobody is banned” from the White House festivities. Whether Sunday’s encounter with police was related to those claims remains unclear.MMA fighter Sean Strickland is escorted out of the UFC Freedom 250 fan fest on the Ellipse by US Secret Service and other law enforcement officers ahead Sunday’s fights. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/ReutersDiego Lopes delivered the first finish of UFC Freedom 250 with a dramatic second-round knockout of Steve Garcia after appearing to be on the wrong side of much of the fight.Garcia enjoyed success at range and was repeatedly finding Lopes with clean shots, but the bout turned midway through the second round when the pair engaged in a wild exchange. Lopes abandoned caution, landed a fight-changing blow that stunned Garcia and quickly swarmed for the finish, leaving his opponent splayed on the canvas. The referee called it at the 2:42 mark of round two.The come-from-behind knockout ignited the crowd in the purpose-built venue and provided an explosive start to the card, with Lopes once again showcasing the aggressive style and fight-ending power that have become his signature.Diego Lopes celebrates after defeating Steve Garcia in their UFC featherweight bout. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesSteve Garcia, right, lands a blow on Diego Lopes during Saturday’s fight. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APDonald Trump salutes to the crowd alongside his wife, Melania, and UFC CEO Dana White. Photograph: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLCDiego Lopes are Steve Garcia are in the ring for the first fight of the night. A clash between two of the division’s hottest fighters. Lopes, from Brazil, has challenged twice for the UFC’s featherweight title last year, while the New Mexico native Garcia arrives riding a seven-fight winning streak.Donald Trump watches as Diego Lopes fights Steve Garcia. Photograph: Evan Vucci/ReutersDiego Lopes and Steve Garcia meet in the octagon for the first fight of the night. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThe first of seven fights should be under way shortly. In the meantime here are some scenes from a Sunday night like few others on the White House South Lawn.The UFC Freedom 250 temporary venue on the South Lawn of the White House is seen from the top of the Washington Monument on Sunday night. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesDonald Trump and UFC CEO Dana White stand on the Blue Room Balcony of the White House as US military jets perform a flyover. Photograph: ABACA/ShutterstockTrump and White take their seats before Sunday’s fights to a grand entrance. Photograph: Evan Vucci/ReutersSteve Garcia makes his entrance for the first fight of the night. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/APFans watch Sunday’s fights on giant screens on the Ellipse across the street from the South Lawn of the White House. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAJust when it seemed the buildup to UFC Freedom 250 couldn’t get any stranger, the FBI director entered the frame. In a promotional video released ahead of Sunday’s White House card, FBI director Kash Patel touted a partnership that has seen hundreds of federal agents train alongside UFC fighters and coaches. The footage offers another glimpse into the increasingly close relationship between the promotion, the Trump administration and the constellation of institutions orbiting UFC Freedom 250.Allow content provided by a third party?This article includes content hosted on platform.x.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.We’re still awaiting the first fight on tonight’s card: a three-round featherweight scrap between Diego Lopes and Steve Garcia.Fabiola CineasProtesters with the grassroots activist group Third Act Virginia, who stood outside of the Ellipse as UFC fans filed into the viewing area in the afternoon, chanted “Whose house? Our house! Whose lawn? Our lawn!” UFC fans shouted back: “USA! USA! UFC! UFC!” The protesters erected a makeshift cage and filled it with puppets of Trump and his cabinet members. “We made the cage to show them behind bars where they belong – not in the UFC cage, but in a jail cage,” said Marco Smith, a member of Third Act Virginia who led the construction of the cage and puppets.Luis, 18, and his friend, a 23-year-old UFC fan, who declined to share his name for fear of retribution, said they were at the Ellipse because they are big UFC fans and don’t see the event as political. “It’s the first time anything like this has been done at the White House, and the hype around this was very exciting,” said Luis who traveled in from Colorado. The two said they don’t support Donald Trump and also don’t vote in elections. “I understand why some people are offended by this because it is disruptive. But then I also see the other side. This is bringing people together to watch the event. This could unify people on both sides,” said the friend who resides in Virginia.Emily Moore, 23, and Nick Cooke, 25, from upstate New York, were at the UFC viewing event to see American UFC fighter Justin Gaethje. “We applied for the tickets and got them, and we love UFC,” said Moore. “But we don’t support Trump at all. I come from a family of immigrants from Puerto Rico and Jamaica,” said Cooke.Dozens of protesters stood south of the White House to protest Sunday’s UFC fights, under the banner ‘The Real Fight is for Democracy.’ Photograph: Fabiola Cineas/The GuardianDonald Trump and UFC president Dana White have now made their entrance, emerging from the White House to a Color Guard from the “military district of Washington” in a scene that feels equal parts campaign rally, state ceremony and fight night. As the Zac Brown Band reaches the closing bars of the Star-Spangled Banner, a rare Super Delta formation flyover by the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds roars overhead, providing a display of American military might to match the scale of the occasion.Allow content provided by a third party?This article includes content hosted on platform.x.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.Allow content provided by a third party?This article includes content hosted on platform.x.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.The four-man studio desk for the broadcast consists of former UFC champions Dominick Cruz, Chris Weidman and Michael Bisping alongside veteran play-by-play broadcaster Brendan Fitzgerald. Judging by the opening segment, they are also serving as tonight’s department of patriotism, a role embraced enthusiastically by all involved, including Bisping despite the minor complication of being English.“The energy, the spirit, the patriotism and the whole show that was put on – it gave me goosebumps,” Bisping said of Saturday’s Fan Frest at the Ellipse. “It really did. And now, to be sitting here in the White House with the fights starting very, very soon ... what an incredible week.”Weidman then raised the stakes.“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” he said. “As an American, I haven’t felt that type of patriotism in my life. Everywhere you went, it was ‘USA! USA!’ People just chanting ‘America’ nonstop. It just felt really good. It made me super proud to be American.”Not to be outdone, Cruz recalled a moment involving the national bird.“When that eagle flew over the top of us, man, you could shed a tear,” he said. “This is the pinnacle of any athlete’s life – to show up at the White House, much less to get to fight at the White House. So how special is it to be here?”Fitzgerald completed the sweep.“Unbelievable,” he said. “And after such success at the Olympics earlier this year – the Winter Olympics – and the Tkachuk brothers from the US gold medal-winning hockey team in attendance tonight as well to celebrate the patriotic spirit that this event does bring.”For those keeping score at home, the running tally through the opening segment stood at one bald eagle, multiple chants of “USA!”, Olympic heroes, hockey royalty and at least three grown men fighting back goosebumps.Heidi Androl, a reporter on the UFC’s telecast, says organizers are closely monitoring a line of thunderstorms moving toward Washington, with weather officials focused less on rain than on the threat of high winds and lightning.“I was just down at the command center and was able to speak with Kevin Mahoney from DTN Weather Services, a private weather company commissioned by the UFC,” Androl says on the Paramount+ broadcast. “They’re working closely with the Presidential Weather Office and the National Weather Service tracking a cell of thunderstorms over West Virginia that is set to move into the Metro DC area between now and 9pm.“It is not rain that they are concerned with. It is high winds and lightning. I am told that if that happens, a shelter in place will be initiated.”According to Androl, UFC security officials have designated shelter locations for every department, with personnel on the South Lawn set to move into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which also houses the fighters’ locker rooms.She added that any shelter-in-place order would be lifted “within 30 minutes of the last lightning strike within a six-mile radius”, though forecasters currently expect conditions to clear by around 9pm.Before the cage fighting came the motocross. On Saturday, Nitro Circus star Travis Pastrana and a group of motocross riders performed jumps and stunts on the South Lawn as part of the build-up festivities. Pastrana had been invited by UFC chief executive Dana White to perform a dirt-bike backflip against the backdrop of the White House, a sentence that might have felt ripped from a Mike Judge screenplay not all that long ago. The stunt show formed part of a broader weekend program that has included fighter weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial, concerts, fan festivals and enough pyrotechnics to power a national political convention and Wrestlemania back to back. Welcome to Costco, I love you.Motor sports athletes perform Saturday on the South Lawn of the White House. Photograph: ABACA/ShutterstockStorm forecast delays first fight to 9pm ETThe weather has landed the first blow at UFC Freedom 250. With thunderstorms forecast across the Washington area on Sunday evening, UFC officials delayed the start of the White House card by approximately one hour. Broadcast coverage is still scheduled to begin at 8pm ET on Paramount+, but the first fight is now expected no earlier than 9pm, with promotion officials indicating the exact timing remains subject to changing conditions.The delay highlights the challenges facing one of the most ambitious events in the UFC’s 33-year history. Mixed martial arts cards are almost always staged indoors, and the promotion has held only one previous open-air event: UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi in 2010. With further storms possible very much in play for later in the evening, Sunday’s card on the White House South Lawn may require additional adjustments before the night is over.UFC rain crew prepare tarps Sunday on the South Lawn at the White House. Photograph: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLCBeyond the octagon, the fighter walkouts and the spectacle of a UFC card on White House grounds lies another story: who gets access and what it costs. Sidney Blumenthal argues that Sunday’s event has become a nexus of political fundraising, corporate influence and presidential branding, with million-dollar donor dinners, seven-figure hospitality packages and a guest list that reads as a who’s who of Trump’s political and business network. For Blumenthal, the looming presence of “the Claw” is merely the most visible symbol of a much larger transaction.The UFCs temporary venue is seen on the South Lawn of the White House from the Washington Monument ahead of Sunday’s fights. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesTonight's order of playHere’s a look at tonight’s seven-fight card (in reverse order). The first fight is expected to begin at 8pm ET, with the main event likely shortly before midnight depending on fight length and any weather delays.