Fight night at the White House

In the 2000s, fight promotion Strikeforce held two fight nights at the famous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2007 and 2008.

At the time, I thought that Mixed Martial Arts couldn’t find anywhere that would compete with a venue like the Playboy Mansion. I would be proved wrong 13 years later.

There had been murmurs of a UFC fight card on the grounds of the White House for a little while. When I first heard it, I didn’t think it was serious talk. I should have realised that anything is possible with Dana White and Donald Trump.

There has been plenty of speculation about who may fight at the White House, with several names being thrown around and fighters also putting their hands up. Recently retired Jon Jones had put his hand up to return to action for the card. That was shot down by White, with the UFC president saying that he couldn’t trust Jones to put him on the card after the Tom Aspinall debacle.

While Jones won’t be returning, Conor McGregor is slated to return. McGregor hasn’t fought inside the Octagon since his loss to Dustin Poirier in 2021. The former two-division champion was meant to fight Michael Chandler after the two fighters were coaches on The Ultimate Fighter.

It looked like McGregor and Chandler would never fight after the Irishman dropped out of the fight. However, the fight may be back on as McGregor said on Fox News that the pair would finally throw down on the White House card. Although White has said he would not be making fights for the card until February.

One thing that has been shown is the concept drawings for the fight card. White unveiled them on Fox News.