President Trump Hints At Keeping White House's UFC Arena

President Donald Trump and his administration will be treated to a star-studded UFC event.

The White House is set to host a special UFC Fight Night on June 14 as part of the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Although this is considered a once-in-a-lifetime event for MMA fans, tickets will actually be free.

"There's a park that's right there," UFC president Dana White said. "We're gonna be ticketing 85,000 people in the Ellipse and the tickets are free. We'll announce how we're gonna be giving them away soon, but you should plan on going to Washington, D.C., for this event."

This UFC event will be headlined by lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria. Fans will also get to watch Alex Pereira and Circyl Gane square off.

Changing plans at the White House.

Interestingly enough, the UFC arena that was built on the South Lawn could be used for future events.

Trump teased this week that his UFC arena could become a permanent addition to the White House.

"People don't know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower, 1889 it was built," Trump said. "It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the world's fair, and then they said: 'leave it up a little bit longer, and then they said, 'let's leave it up longer and longer and longer.' Well, they never took it down, and you know we're building something in front of the White House that's quite attractive to a lot of people. Really, it's going to have the big UFC fight on June 14, and I'm looking at it and maybe we'll never ever take it down."

Time will tell if this UFC arena remains on the South Lawn after this summer.

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 3:55 PM.