Las Vegas — A whole lot of news came out of UFC 326 on Saturday, and very little of it was about the card itself.
Instead, the event served as the launch point, of sorts, for the UFC’s upcoming White House card, now titled Freedom 250. The full card, as it stands, was announced during the UFC 326 broadcast, and notably, Jon Jones was not among the names revealed.
Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje headline the show in a lightweight title fight; Alex Pereira moves to heavyweight to face Ciryl Gane for an interim title in the co-main event.
How did the UFC come up with the Freedom 250 card? Dana White explained to media outlets including Cageside Press following Saturday’s event in Las Vegas that “basically, what we did is the matchmakers started talking to everybody, seeing what fights were possible then came back to me. And I chose the card.”
As far as the interim title attached to Pereira vs. Gane, he noted that “Tom [Aspinall, heavyweight champion] obviously won’t be ready for the White House fight. That’s why it’s an interim title.”
Aspinall is recovering from an eye injury incurred during a fight with Gane last year.
White revealed on Friday that one fight had fallen off the White House card at the last minute. The UFC CEO and President was mum about exactly what the fight was on Saturday.
“It’s not important,” he stated, later adding “There’s weird circumstances around it, that we probably shouldn’t talk about it.”
White added, however, that the bout did not involve Jon Jones, noting that he’d already dismissed the idea of Jones fighting on the card. “He can barely run. He retired because of his hips, he’s got arthritis in his hips. Doctors say he should have a hip replacement. Add that on top of all the other reasons that I wouldn’t— the Jon Jones thing is bullsh*t.”
White then somewhat contradicted himself, saying “I’m not saying we weren’t talking to Jon Jones, or that Jon Jones wasn’t interested in the fight.” Maybe not entirely BS, then, but a deal never got made.
Asked whether it was fair to say Jones was retired, White replied with “Yes, very fair.”
Whatever fight did drop out, there’s a question as to whether it could be replaced. For now, it’s a six-fight card for Freedom 250.
‘We literally had, I don’t know, 15, 20 fights to choose from from the top to the bottom of the card. Which is six. We were at seven actually, I had one more and then when the other one fell out, we went back to six,” explained White. “There were lots of things in play. There were lots of fights in play for the White House. And this is the card that I ended up picking.”
For fans who can’t attend the White House— the event will be heavily restricted— there will be an opportunity to watch the fights somewhat live.
“The Eclipse across the street, we’ll be able to hold 85,000 people over there,” White told Cageside Press. “We’re going to have screens and fan [activities] over there. RAM is giving away trucks, all kinds of cool stuff. Even if you can’t get tickets, you should be in DC the week of the fight. Press conference is going to be at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s going to be fun.”
Watch the full UFC 326 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.
