Welcome to POST Wrestling’s live coverage of UFC Freedom 250. Refresh this page throughout the night for the latest news and results from this evening’s card.
Results
Main Card (8 p.m. ET) (Paramount+)
- Ilia Topuria (17-0) vs. Justin Gaethje (27-5) (UFC Lightweight Championship)
- Alex Pereira (13-3) vs. Ciryl Gane (13-2) (Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship)
- Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi (14-2) (Bantamweight)
- Derrick Lewis vs. Josh Hokit (9-0) (Heavyweight)
- Mauricio Ruffy (13-2) vs. Michael Chandler (23-10) (Lightweight)
- Bo Nickal (8-1) vs. Kyle Daukaus (17-4) (Middleweight)
- Diego Lopes (27-8) vs. Steve Garcia (19-5) (Featherweight)
The latest – 8:53 p.m. ET: UFC’s Sean Strickland escorted out of Fan Fest
Among the thousands of those in attendance tonight are celebrities, politicians, and veterans. Not on the invite list was UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland, who said his outspoken views on Trump caused him to not be cleared to appear at the show.
This didn’t stop Strickland from trying to show up at the event anyway, it seems. Footage surfacing on social media from Sunday shows that Strickland was escorted away from the event’s Fan Fest, hours prior to the event officially starting.
Strickland got into the fest and jumped into a WWE ring set up in the area, footage shows, but was escorted out of the venue shortly thereafter.
“Sorry you guys.. We almost made it!!!,” said Strickland on Instagram, posting a photo of him barefoot, getting escorted away by a horde of security. “I promise one day we will set up a circle and box. Thanks for your support.”
Oh, and an update on the fights? The first bout of the night, Steve Garcia versus Diego Lopes, is getting started right now.
Trump & White appear at cageside
After a brief rain delay, the festivities kicked off on the South Lawn.
The broadcast opened with UFC CEO Dana White and U.S. President Donald Trump exiting the Oval Office, walking side-by-side until they finally arrived on the South Lawn. The Zac Brown Band, who performed as part of a fan festival earlier in the weekend, entered the cage to perform the Star Spangled Banner.
We then went back to a shot of Trump and White, who made it to cageside. Trump joined the seating area with the rest of his family, as well as TKO’s Ari Emanuel, who shook hands with the President.
UFC Freedom 250 starts with a rain delay
As expected by many, this evening’s UFC action didn’t get started on time.
Just moments after Sunday’s broadcast went live, UFC presenters officially declared Freedom 250 under a rain delay. Broadcaster Heidi Androl specifically stated that the promotion is monitoring a storm currently going through West Virginia, which is expected to move to the D.C. area from now until 9 p.m. ET.
High winds and lightning in the area could cause a shelter-in-place order, Androl announced. As previously reported by The Weather Channel, such shelter rules would be honored for 30 minutes after the final lightning strike in the area.
The broadcast hasn’t mentioned a new start time for the event, although it seems highly unlikely that any MMA action will take place for the next hour or so. We’ll update this page once we hear more.
Preview: UFC heads to Washington for head-turning, historic night of fights
We’re just moments away from the beginning of UFC Freedom 250, arguably one of the sport’s most polarizing, yet newsworthy events to date.
During a week where America plays host to massive sporting spectacles like the NBA Finals, NHL Playoffs, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it’s MMA that has found an endorsement from U.S. President Donald Trump unlike any other. In a never-seen-before event, UFC will present an seven-fight card on the White House South Lawn in Washington, D.C. this evening, a multi-million dollar venture that has been hyped by both government and combat sports promoters for the past year.
Tonight’s show, a rare outdoor UFC event, promises high-level fights mixed in with storytelling that plans to celebrate America’s 250 years of history. Despite the unique, larger-than-life presentation of the event, it hasn’t been without its detractors.
The Politics
While those behind UFC Freedom 250 have claimed that the event is a nonpartisan appreciation of America, the political nature of hosting an event in collaboration with the current administration has caused the company to draw significant criticism.
Critics of the event see it as a problematic marriage between President Trump’s business partnerships and his career as a politician, tarnishing a U.S. institution’s legacy in the process.
UFC has long been associated with Trump, a history which some like to say started decades ago when the then-embattled MMA organization hosted events at his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
Fast forward two-and-a-half decades, UFC gave him a major spotlight during his 2024 U.S. Presidential re-election campaign, coordinating admiring cameos of him at some of their top events of the year. CEO Dana White, who has endorsed Trump at the past three Republican National Conventions, has been credited by the President as providing significant help for younger voter outreach, both through his UFC efforts and by connecting Trump to influential podcasters.
Tonight’s show could be seen as Trump’s way of giving back to a brand and entrepreneur whom he has directly credited with helping his political career. As the sporting world is full of big moments this month, only one can say they got to perform in the President’s backyard, a bragging right which executives within TKO believe will be remembered positively. “This is the greatest earned marketing tool of all time,” TKO’s Mark Shapiro told Time Magazine earlier this year, when asked about the event.
Beyond the political relationship between Trump and UFC is a much clearer financial tie between the event and the President, one which has made many throw out the heavy allegation of “corruption.” It was revealed recently that Trump purchased stock in TKO, showing that he has a direct financial interest in the event, and the company that’s staging the event, to succeed.
Last-minute lawsuits have attempted to halt this evening’s event, although the show being scheduled to go forward proves that such efforts have clearly not been successful.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey from earlier this month found that just 16 percent of Americans considered this evening’s UFC event “appropriate” for Trump to hold. Of the Republicans surveyed in the group, only 31 percent approved of it.
The Fights
It’s rare that the political backdrop of an MMA event overshadows the action going on inside the ring, especially when it’s a card with two world title matchups.
Lost in the mainstream coverage of Sunday’s show will be the fact that it includes some of the promotion’s top names in action, including second-ranked pound-for-pound male MMA fighter Ilia Topuria in the main event.
When looking strictly at the fights, this weekend’s show features a return for one of the sport’s biggest stars, as well as a potentially history-making showdown in the co-main event.
Undefeated Georgian-Spaniard Ilia Topuria will return for the first time in nearly a year, putting his lightweight title on the line against future Hall of Famer Justin Gaethje. Topuria has taken down many of MMA’s greats with ease, stopping Charles Oliveira, Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski in recent years with his sharp strikes. He’ll try to continue that success against the tough Gaethje, who enters as a significant underdog.
The co-main event sees Alex Pereira attempt to do the unprecedented, chasing a heavyweight title after previously capturing gold in the middleweight and light heavyweight classes. In an interim title showdown, the Brazilian kickboxer is scheduled to meet long-time contender Ciryl Gane, who oddsmakers have respected with a pick’em line.
At just seven fights in total, this evening’s show is much shorter than the average UFC card. Earlier bouts include other big names like former champ Sean O’Malley, ex-featherweight title challenger Diego Lopes, veteran talent Michael Chandler, surging middleweight Bo Nickal, and more.
The Weather
A UFC Freedom 250 storyline that has creeped into the headlines over the past few days has been the weather in the nation’s capital, and how that could be a factor during the evening’s card.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday evening that showers and thunderstorms are expected in the area before midnight. A report from The Weather Channel noted that lightning strikes within eight miles of the show “will trigger an automatic 30-minute freeze on the entire event,” showing that harsh weather could significantly delay festivities. They also estimated that severe humidity, “swarms of mosquitoes and gnats,” and wind gusts up to 34 miles per hour could be significant factors for the event.
While a huge “claw” structure has been built over the UFC cage, preventing rainfall from being an issue, it nonetheless seems as though the weather could significantly impact this evening’s processions.
The broadcast for Freedom 250 is expected to begin at its previously announced 8 p.m. ET start time, although it’s expected that the first fight won’t begin until around 9 p.m.
