WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump emerged from the Oval Office first, then fighters from around the globe followed straight into the fight cage, in part for the president’s 80th birthday celebration and to bring a sport long on the fringe of mainstream acceptance into a main event spot on the White House South Lawn.UFC was in DC on Sunday night, a most improbable all-American setting for a fight promotion that long ago shed the “human cockfighting” tag and decades later became entwined with the emboldened right-wing “ manosphere ” that soaks up UFC fights and threw its support behind Trump in two elections.Trump and UFC boss Dana White walked from the Oval Office to the Blue Room Balcony to chants of “USA! USA!” during the Freedom 250 fight night jacked up by a dose of high-octane patriotism on a blustery night for cage fighting.
This was no Easter Egg Roll. Ring announcer Bruce Buffer busted out star-spangled threads for the occasion: gold stars on the outside of his suit coat and mini American flags stitched inside. UFC’s ring girls, who normally parade around the cage in skimpy outfits, were covered up for a more PG-rated fight night, dressed in more full-body outfits, some that flowed past the knee or to the ground and incorporated the American flag into the designs.
