Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje Headlines UFC White House Fight Card Reveal, Who Are Biggest Snubs?
A lightweight unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje will headline the fight card for the UFC’s upcoming White House event.
UFC CEO Dana White announced the full fight card Saturday ahead of the June 14 event in Washington, D.C.
Here’s a look at the full fight card for the upcoming White House event.
UFC Freedom 250 Fight Card
Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje: UFC Lightweight Championship
Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane: Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship
Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi: Bantamweight bout
Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler: Lightweight bout
Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus: Middleweight bout
Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia: Featherweight bout
UFC Freedom 250 is set to take place on the South Lawn of the White House in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.
The headliner will be the title unification bout featuring Topuria, a former UFC featherweight champion who won the lightweight belt with a knockout of Charles Oliveria last June. He has yet to defend his title since stepping away from the sport in November.
Gaethje, who won his second interim lightweight title with a unanimous defeat of Paddy Pimblett in January, is seeking his first unified belt.
The co-main event will feature Pereira, who has won two light heavyweight titles, moving up a division to take on Gane for the interim heavyweight title.
White said during Saturday’s fight card announcement that the winner of the bout between Pereira and Gane would be on track to face Tom Aspinall.
Aspinall, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, had the chance to defend his title against Gane in October before suffering an eye injury that resulted in the bout being ruled no contest.
White said in January that the UFC had been talking about potentially featuring Conor McGregor at the White House event. McGregor, whose last UFC fight took place in 2021, was not ultimately featured on the card.
Another name absent from the final card was Jon Jones. White said last August he would put “billion-to-one odds” on Jones ending up on the White House fight card, to which Jones responded by saying he was “still training and optimistic” about participating in the event.
The card also did not feature Amanda Nunes, who had previously expressed hope she would fight Kayla Harrison at the event.
White said Friday night that at least one planned fight had fallen through shortly before the card was announced.
