Dana White has revealed that the start time for UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 remains subject to change based on weather conditions, with the military playing a direct role in monitoring conditions in the days leading up to the event.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s My View with Lara Trump, White explained the specific protocol put in place to manage the unpredictability of hosting an outdoor event on the White House South Lawn.
“I hate outdoors, outdoors is just way too unpredictable and we’ve gone over this and if it rains, we’re going, if it snows, we’re going, the only thing that will stop us is lightning. But we’re working with the military. So, the military knows the weather 10 days out and they’ll notify us every two hours 10 days out, 7 days out they’ll notify us every hour. There’s also another company that does it for concerts and things like that, they’re very good too. So what could happen is, the only thing that kills us is lightning so we can move the event two hours earlier, two hours later, so these are all things that we’ll be playing with the week of the event on top of all of the other things we’ll have going on.”
White has previously noted that the only other time the UFC held an outdoor event was in Abu Dhabi, an experience he described as frustrating due to heat and insects. The White House card features seven fights, a leaner card than usual, which White indicated will lead to longer breaks between bouts similar to the pacing used at the UFC’s Sphere event.
The main event features Ilia Topuria defending the undisputed lightweight championship against Justin Gaethje, with Alex Pereira challenging Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event.