UFC CEO Dana White promised fans that the UFC White House card would be the biggest event in the history of the sport. And while there’s no doubt the event will be massive simply due to the location, the card’s line-up as revealed on the UFC 326 broadcast is simply underwhelming.
Headlining the event: Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje to unify the lightweight title. In the co-main: Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. Then Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi, Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael
Chandler, Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus, and Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia.
Even the UFC seemed embarrassed by the reveal: rather than announce it proudly on CBS, they let the opportunity to reveal the card on broadcast television pass them by. And then as White discussed the card, he couldn’t help but admit they’d under-delivered.
“Listen, I’ll say this,” White said, laughing nervously. “This card was a lot more difficult to put together than we anticipated, but we got it done.”
Even past the Jon Jones sized hole in the co-main (and the self-inflicted lack of Conor McGregor which would have avoided this whole mess), the undercard does nothing to impress. There is no must-see fight here like there was when UFC 300 was stacked to divert attention from a ho-hum main event. For months we have been talking about what might end up on the UFC White House card. At no point did anyone suggest Aiemann Zahabi or Kyle Daukaus.
Let’s take a look at what everyone else online is saying about the Freedom Fights 250 card.
