UFC brings cage-match bout to the White House, home of a president who favors cage-match politics

People hold a flag as President-elect Donald Trump arrives at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) 2026-03-28T12:40:50Z WASHINGTON (AP) — Cage-match fighting is coming to the White House to fete President Donald Trump , a proud proponent of cage-match politics .

In the coming weeks, crews will erect a 6-foot wire-mesh fence shaped into an octagon on the lawn, where UFC fighters will use a combination of kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling and other martial arts in a June 14 mixed martial arts show timed for Trump’s 80th birthday and as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The celebration of bloody, brute force dovetails with Trump’s gleefully combative charisma and extreme ideological masculinity — a brawling, no-holds-barred approach to the highest office in the land. “I have respect for fighters, you know, when you can take 200 shots to the face and then look forward to the second round,” Trump told podcaster Logan Paul as he campaigned for his second term.

Trump was the first sitting president to attend a UFC show, taking in a 2019 fight that was stopped because of a cut over the loser’s eye that left blood pouring down the fighter’s face .

To the uninitiated, the sport celebrates violence.

It is wildly popular with young men. “A lot of people don’t understand fighting and they think fighting is about anger.

It’s not.

If you’re angry when you fight, you’ll lose,” said veteran MMA referee and commentator “Big John” McCarthy . “Fighting is about technique and style, and understanding how to make your opponent make mistakes while you don’t,” McCarthy said. “I totally understand why he likes it,” he added of Trump. “Because I do.” Friends with UFC and broadcast executives It is hard to find a phrase more Trumpian than Ultimate Fighting Championship .

A committed devotee of hyperbole, Trump relishes grand descriptors that can elevate anything to its “ultimate” version.

He also proudly fancies himself a fighter: “Fight!

Fight!

Fight!” became his 2024 campaign mantra, one crystalized after an assassination attempt that summer.

Then there is “championship,” another thing close to the heart of a president who constantly professes love for winning and those who do it frequently.

All of that means Trump giving UFC its largest-ever platform “is calculated.

He knows what he’s doing,” said Kyle Kusz, a University of Rhode Island professor who studies the connection between sports and the far right.

Tr

原文链接: AP News