Construction work has started at the White House for the UFC ring to celebrate President Donald Trump’s birthday.
In an event dubbed UFC Freedom 250, six bouts are expected to be held on the White House South Lawn on June 14. The fight is being marketed as one of the many events to commemorate America’s 250th birthday, but it also falls on Trump’s 80th birthday.
“This will be the greatest show on Earth,” Trump said from the Oval Office earlier this month as the UFC fighters set to participate in the bouts stood behind him.
Trump also showed off a nighttime rendering of what the fight will look like during the press briefing. The photo appears to show a UFC Octagon floor with red, white and blue lights around it. The Octagon was placed in front of the White House, and a massive light rig is arched on either side of the presidential residence.
Photos taken outside the White House Saturday and Monday appear to show construction crews starting to assemble the lighting rig in anticipation of the fight.
Two massive yellow cranes were seen towering over the South Lawn as pieces of the rig lay on the ground below, one photo taken Saturday appears to show.
Progress on the lighting rig can be seen in a collection of photos taken Monday. In one, cranes can be seen carrying a section of the rig as it arches in front of the White House.
Another photo appears to show two sections of the rig being connected, using the cranes.
Monday afternoon, Trump was seen examining a White House pillar and talking to his staff, according to a video shared on X by NewsNation White House Correspondent Kellie Meyer.
“President Trump just spent a few moments when he returned to the White House residents [sic] to look at one of the White House pillars and asking questions to his staff, directing them to take photos of it and touching the white pillar himself. Unclear why,” Meyer wrote in the post.
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
UFC Freedom 250’s main event will be between lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and interim champion Justin Gaethje.
Topuria thanked Trump, who is friends with UFC president Dana White, for the “opportunity to build the biggest event in sports history” while at the White House earlier this month.
Gaethje, who shared his gratitude for Trump supporting UFC before it was mainstream, told the president at the Oval Office, “It’s truly an honor. It’s awesome. It’s your birthday. Awesome. It’s Flag Day. Wonderful to represent this country.”
Trump said that there would be 4,000 seats on the South Lawn for the fight, and there would be a screening of it “in the park right across the street,” seemingly referring to Lafayette Park. He said the park will have “anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 people,” adding that it was free to attend.
While the UFC is paying for the event, sponsorship packages that include ringside tickets to the fight have been selling for $1 million or more, a Republican lobbyist familiar with the matter told NBC News in an article published earlier this month.
