President Donald Trump stated on July 3 that the White Home might host an Final Preventing Championship (UFC) occasion subsequent yr as a part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence.
Trump told supporters at a “Salute to America” occasion in Des Moines, Iowa, that the federal authorities plans to mark the event with a yr’s value of occasions, including that “each one in every of our nationwide park battlefields and historic websites” would host particular occasions to mark the anniversary.
“I even assume we’re going to have a UFC combat,” Trump stated. “We’re going to have a UFC combat, consider this, on the grounds of the White Home. Now we have quite a lot of land there. We’re going to construct somewhat, we’re not, Dana’s going to do it. Dana’s nice. One among a sort.”
UFC President Dana White is a detailed good friend of Trump.
Trump added that the occasion on the White Home can be a “UFC combat, championship combat, full combat,” with between 20,000 and 25,000 individuals in attendance.
The president stated there would even be different skilled and beginner occasions held over the following yr to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding on July 4, 2026, together with a youth sporting occasion dubbed the “Patriot Video games” which he stated will characteristic prime highschool athletes from all 50 states.
“It’s going to be nice,” Trump stated, with out offering extra particulars.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the deliberate UFC occasion in an announcement on the social media platform, X, writing, “It’s going to be epic!”
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Trump, who is understood within the combined martial arts world because the “Combatant in Chief,” has been an everyday attendee at UFC fights, most just lately attending one in New Jersey in June.
In 2001, he hosted the combined martial arts occasions “UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk” and “UFC 31: Locked and Loaded” on the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, which has since closed.
He additionally celebrated his election victory in November by attending a UFC occasion at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis.
Trump’s speech in Des Moines “indicators the start of a unprecedented yr forward,” in accordance with a statement from the America 250 Fee. The fee was established by Congress in 2016 to “plan and orchestrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence,” in accordance with its web site.
The assertion provides that the entire America250’s initiatives and packages that can happen over the following yr are “designed to interact communities nationwide, creating lasting reminiscences and a renewed dedication to America’s future.”
Trump stated different celebrations will embody “the good American State Honest” which can “convey America250 programming for fairgrounds throughout the nation, culminating in an enormous patriotic pageant subsequent summer time on the Nationwide Mall, that includes displays from all 50 states.”
The Epoch Occasions has contacted the White Home and a spokesperson for the UFC’s father or mother firm, TKO Group Holdings, for additional remark
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