After Dana White let slip that a fight had fallen through for this year’s UFC event at the White House just yesterday, the promotion went ahead and announced the entire line-up on Saturday anyway.
During Saturday’s UFC 326 broadcast, promotion officials revealed that the card, now entitled Freedom 250, would be headlined by Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje, for Topuria’s lightweight title.
The co-main event sees Alex Pereira, recently announced as vacating his light heavyweight title, take on former UFC interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane. An interim belt will be on the line in that one.
The elephant in the room is Jon Jones, who just days ago suggested he was still negotiating to appear on the White House card. “Bones” was not mentioned by name during Saturday’s announcement, nor has White confirmed that he was part of the fight that reportedly fell through on Friday.
The remaining UFC White House (Freedom 250) fights announced on Saturday include a potential bantamweight title eliminator, as ex-135lb champ Sean O’Malley takes on rising Canadian Aiemann Zahabi.
At lightweight, Mauricio Ruffy of The Fighting Nerds faces off against “Iron” Michael Chandler, once expected to be Conor McGregor’s next opponent. Like Jones, McGregor’s name was nowhere to be found on Saturday.
Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus takes place at middleweight, while Diego Lopes kicks off the night opposite Steve Garcia.
THE OFFICIAL BOUT LIST FOR #UFCWhiteHouse
[ LIVE Sunday June 14 on @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/06d09Tm0jZ
— UFC (@ufc) March 8, 2026
The card will almost certainly be talked about as much for who isn’t on it, primarily Jon Jones, as who is. In recent weeks, it has been suggested that the promotion was going a different direction with McGregor, whose star power is capable of elevating any event on its own, and might therefore be wasted on a White House event expected to already draw plenty of attention.
Jones, however, seemed like a possibility, despite Dana White’s reluctance to put the troubled star on such a big card.
Fighters like Colby Covington and Derrick Lewis, a couple of U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported favorites, were also missing from the line-up.
UFC’s Freedom 250 event takes place on June 14, 2026 on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C.
