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{"id":24126,"date":"2026-06-12T14:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/60m-and-7-federal-agencies-required-to-stage-ufc-fight-at-white-house\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:20:19","slug":"60m-and-7-federal-agencies-required-to-stage-ufc-fight-at-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/60m-and-7-federal-agencies-required-to-stage-ufc-fight-at-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"$60M and 7 federal agencies required to stage UFC fight at White House&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/jesse-bedayn\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/339b4ee\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/662x662+40+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Ff0%2Fc4%2F8040c4324b2b83aeac17896c7a88%2Fheadshot-bedayn-jesse-bedayn.png\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1781139939000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>President Donald Trump&rsquo;s planned <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-south-lawn-history-ufc-fight-f6fa24c5e972349a4721bda7a29f8077\">UFC fight on the White House&rsquo;s<\/a><\/span>  South Lawn has required a monumental effort from more than seven federal agencies, hundreds of staff working onsite daily and at least $60 million, according to a legal filing that offers a glimpse into the preparations. <\/p>\n<p>The event is part of the 250th anniversary of America&rsquo;s founding, and is scheduled for the weekend with the main attraction &mdash; seven mixed martial arts matches &mdash; on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p>That is, if a judge doesn&rsquo;t halt the proceedings, which is sought by two Virginia residents in a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/white-house-ufc-fight-lawsuit-trump-birthday-da95554d7137ca297dd47951a3b95cc8\">federal lawsuit<\/a><\/span>  against the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn. <\/p>\n<p>The agency filed a rebuff of the request Tuesday in court, and, in it, laid out the operations for the event.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended,&rdquo; the document read, adding that the money came from the UFC and groups affiliated with it. <\/p>\n<h2>The Octagon <\/h2>\n<p>It&rsquo;s the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ufc-octagon-white-house-trump-america-250-4fa60d8e0cd34448b55f34f41b18c116\">eight-sided cage<\/a><\/span>  that surrounds the sometimes bloodied combatants and sits at the center of the constructed arena on the South Lawn. <\/p>\n<p>The arena is expected to hold 4,000 spectators, with another 120,000 visitors &mdash; who swung tickets from an online lottery &mdash; anticipated to watch from the nearby Ellipse.<\/p>\n<p>The installation began May 20, and the Secret Service worked with the UFC to screen between 20 and 30 trucks of equipment &mdash; as well as between &ldquo;700 and 900&rdquo; staff &mdash; that came in daily for the installation. <\/p>\n<p>The document did not specify the extent of government resources spent on the project, but said seven agencies, including Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration, have &ldquo;allocated significant resources and manpower.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>The schedule <\/h2>\n<p>It&rsquo;ll kick off Saturday with a ceremonial weigh-in at the Ellipse, followed by a concert by country musicians The Zac Brown Band. <\/p>\n<p>A UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest will be ongoing through the weekend, with &ldquo;interactive experiences,&rdquo; live shows, celebrity appearances, &ldquo;exclusive on-stage moments,&rdquo; meet and greets, live music and interviews with the athletes. <\/p>\n<p>Sunday night is when the seven bouts kick off. At the close, Trump is scheduled to fly to France for the G7 summit.<\/p>\n<p>Disassembly of the installations will begin the next day, and they are expected to be entirely removed by June 23.<\/p>\n<h2>The athletes&rsquo; Epsom salt baths<\/h2>\n<p>There are 14 athletes competing, and their training is rigorous. <\/p>\n<p>Preparations start months in advance, working toward more intense weight cutting and diet alteration in the final week that can include fasting, extreme sauna use and hot Epsom salt baths.<\/p>\n<p>They could be shaving as many as 20 pounds before weigh-ins, which are designed to keep the competition fair between similarly weighted combatants.<\/p>\n<h2>Lawsuit calls it &lsquo;corrupt&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>It was filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of the two Virginia residents and argues that Trump&rsquo;s authorization of the event violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands. <\/p>\n<p>One of the attorneys, Brendan Ballou, characterized it as a &ldquo;corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The National Park Service pushed back on that claim, but also detailed the event&rsquo;s preparations to make a point. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All these hopes could be dashed at the very last moment,&rdquo; it read, &ldquo;by the whim of two people who believe they have superior taste and want to spoil the event for everyone else.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-ufc-costs-federal-agencies-lawsuit-5bd8382d8d106d7685b024508a178748\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] President Donald Trump&rsquo;s planned UFC fight on the White House&rsquo;s South Lawn has required a monumental effort from more than seven federal agencies, hundreds of staff working onsite daily and at least $60 million, according to a legal filing that offers a glimpse into the preparations. The event [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}