In what US President Donald Trump dubbed 'the greatest show on Earth', the White House will host on Sunday the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The UFC, being held to mark Trump’s 80th birthday, which is also Flag Day, and is part of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary, will be the first-ever professional sporting event staged at White House and will have over 4,300 invitees as the audience.
The seven-bout card will be held on a makeshift arena called The Claw, which is a 92ft high metal structure weighing over 600 tonnes. The Claw is being constructed over the White House South lawn.
When to watch
The ticket sales were not open to the public, and over 4000 attendees were invited by the UFC, the Trump administration, or are active military member. It will be screened at 20:00 EDT (05:30 AM IST on Monday) exclusively on Paramount+, which is run by Trump ally David Ellison. Last year, UFC signed a $7.7bn deal with the Netflix rival streaming service.
14 fighters
In the main event, the US’s Justine Gaethje will make the walk to the cage first with Germany’s Ilia Topuria. Among the other scheduled fights is an interim UFC heavyweight title bout between Brazil's Alex Pereira and France's Ciryl Gane. Also scheduled are Sean O'Malley vs. Aimann Zahabi at bantamweight, Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler at lightweight, Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus at middleweight and Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia at featherweight.
Derrick Lewis will also take on Josh Hokit in an undercard fight, which is the last one added to the event, and was done so at the request of Trump, who is a big fan of Lewis.
Weather issues
While a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Virginia residents - a Vietnam veteran and a local civic activist - to halt the event, the judge threw it aside, and the weather could play spoilsport to the highly anticipated event. The forecast hints at a hot and humid day on Sunday with mid-afternoon temperatures peaking at around 91F (33C). Scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop, and there is a risk of lightning, downpours and wind gusts of over 50mph (80km).
