Dana White isn’t getting swept up in the hype surrounding the UFC’s landmark event scheduled for the White House in 2026.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to host a UFC event at the White House on Independence Day next year, several of the sport’s biggest names have expressed interest in fighting on the historic card.
Recently retired heavyweight champion Jon Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) and former two-division champion Conor McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) both revealed that they’ve re-entered the UFC’s anti-doping testing pool and want to compete at the event. Meanwhile, former UFC fighter Nate Diaz (21-13 MMA, 16-11 UFC) — who’s faced McGregor twice — has said he’d love to return for a trilogy bout with the Irish star at next year’s showcase.
Although White isn’t dismissing the idea of a Diaz comeback, he emphasized that it’s too early to begin assembling the fight card.
“I love Nate,” White told reporters at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference in New Orleans on Saturday night. “That fight's a year away, so I'm not even thinking about anything right now. The landscape will change so much by next 4th of July. Who knows what's going to happen? Who knows who's going to be on the card or what the main event will be or who will hold all the titles. Everything could be completely different, so it's not even worth thinking about it right now.
“I have other problems. I'm dealing with the logistics and all the things on figuring out how to make this thing happen. How do we want to do it? I'm going to fly out there in about 10 days, two weeks, and we'll have all the renderings done, sit down with (Donald Trump) and go through the renderings and see what he wants to do and what he doesn't want to do.”
Jon Jones recently announced his retirement following a prolonged saga surrounding a potential heavyweight title unification bout with Tom Aspinall. “Bones” had reportedly agreed to face the then-interim champion, only to pull the rug out from under the UFC by abruptly retiring.
Less than two weeks after Jones stepped away, President Trump unveiled his plans for next year’s White House event. In response, the former champion revealed his intention to re-enter the testing pool with hopes of competing on the historic card.
However, UFC President Dana White was quick to shut down that possibility, saying he isn’t willing to take the risk of relying on Jones to follow through for such a high-profile event.
“It's not even about him winning the belt,” said White. “You know how I felt about him. I can't risk putting him in big positions, in a big spot, and have something go wrong. Especially the White House card.”
