UFC White House event set for Sunday night with two title fights

After a year of preparation, successful weigh-ins, tense face-offs and heavy anticipation, the UFC is set to stage a historic event at the White House overnight between Sunday and Monday. The show comes during the World Cup in North America and is being framed as part of celebrations for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and the United States’ 250th anniversary.

Before the main card, a special UFC studio broadcast will go live on Sport 5 at 01:00. Two hours later, at 03:00, the fights begin, with Rotem Don and Ran Malovany on commentary duties for the event.

The card will feature two championship bouts. In the lightweight title fight, champion Ilia Topuria will face Justin Gaethje, who is trying to take the belt from one of the UFC’s biggest stars. Earlier on the card, Alex Pereira meets Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. The heavyweight division’s full champion is Tom Aspinall, but an eye injury suffered in his last fight against Gane has kept him out for a long period, prompting the interim title fight to keep the division active. Pereira’s fight will be his heavyweight debut.

The full lineup also includes Sean O’Malley against Aiemann Zahabi, Josh Hokit against Derrick Lewis, Mauricio Ruffy against Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal against Kyle Daukaus, and Diego Lopes against Steve Garcia. The article says the event promises to be a historic one.