White House to host UFC cage match on South Lawn

In honor of President Trump’s 80th birthday and America’s 250th anniversary, a bunch of dudes are gonna beat the freedom out of each other tomorrow night during a $60+ million UFC event that’ll take place on the same grounds where kids roll Easter Eggs each year.

Attendees at the UFC Freedom 250 event will include political leaders, CEOs, and celebrities picked by Trump, UFC CEO Dana White, and Ari Emanuel, CEO of UFC parent company TKO. For those who can’t be there, the spectacle will stream exclusively on Paramount+.

TKO is footing the bill and is expecting to lose $30 million, even with sponsorships from companies including Ram Trucks, Crypto.com, and Monster Energy. But immediate profit isn’t the point:

• “We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+,” TKO’s president recently said. That matters to UFC because it struck a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal last August that moved its matches from ESPN to Paramount+.
• TKO and UFC execs have said they expect Super Bowl-like exposure, but a senior columnist at The Athletic doubts it: Super Bowl LX drew 125 million viewers domestically, according to Nielsen, while Paramount+ reportedly had 79 million global subscribers in February.

Let’s get ready to grumble: Yesterday, a judge rejected a lawsuit that attempted to stop the fights. But only 16% of Americans approve of tomorrow’s event, while 46% think it's inappropriate, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.—ML