This weekend, Dana White and the UFC will perform for Donald Trump when the octagon is imported to the lawn of the White House for an event to celebrate the orange blob's 80th birthday. Coincidentally, this will be after Trump bought stock in TKO, the parent company of the WWE/UFC umbrella. It was also after Trump settled a $10 billion lawsuit with his own Department of Justice with an agreement that saw the lawsuit dropped in exchange for the IRS dropping any current or future audits of the Trump family.
Just another day in America.
The White House card was actually the subject of a lawsuit of its own, but the attempted legal action, regardless of if it was furious or had merit is moot. The pay-per-view will take place as scheduled with a seven-fight card this Sunday. Of course, this grandstanding and symbolic bowing to the president is nothing more than ensuring favor from the administration going forward. It might be sleazy, it might be unethical, and there might be questions about how legal it is, but it's still a smart move. Dana White, the McMahon family, and Endeavor management will have a useful ace up their sleeve when needed, or literally a get out of jail free card. A mass pardon of rioters that tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power of an election is a very low bar so there's no doubt that Trump would bail out those that threw him a birthday party if they found themselves in legal jeopardy. It pays to have powerful connections and this UFC card cements that Trump will be more than willing to repay the favor in the future. Keep in mind, the merger of Paramount, the corporation that signed the UFC to a $7 billion rights deal for a seven-year contract, looked for government approval of a merger with Warner Brothers Discovery.
Amidst the pyro and ballyhoo for the orange villain's birthday, there is an actual fight card that could have some direct implications to some of the divisions in the company.
With Tom Aspinall still sidelined with the gruesome eye injury that he suffered in the first round of a fight against Ciryl Gane last October, and no timetable for his expected return to the UFC after multiple eye surgeries to repair the damage, Gane will stepped into the cage with Alex Pereira to determine an interim 265 LBS champion. While I hope Aspinall can make a full recovery to return to the sport, given the seriousness of the injury, I wouldn't be completely shocked if he's on the shelf long enough that he will have to vacate the title and the interim champion is eventually elevated to the position of the undisputed heavyweight titleholder. Pereira, who is a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, vacated the belt to move up to the heavyweight division. Ciryl Gane is a solid contender with a pro record of 13-2-1 and he beat solid competition to rack up those victories. The problem is, at least for this bout against Pereira, Gane's two career losses against Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones were the top-tier of the division at the time. Gane can be successful against most of the contenders in the heavyweight division, but he doesn't have a win against any of the top guys. I'd say that Pereira, with his razor-sharp striking skills, would be considered one of the top-tier fighters in the UFC, despite this being his debut at heavyweight.
I could be wrong, but I'd expect Pereira to be too quick and too dangerous for Gane over the course of a five-round fight. In some ways, given the height and reach similarities, Gane will probably have some of the same issues against Pereira that he did against Jones at UFC 285 in March of 2023. At 38, Pereira is at the latter stage of his career, but still seems to be at a physical peak so I have to pick him to win the fight.
The show will be headlined by a UFC Light Weight championship unification bout when the undefeated, Ilia Topuria squares off with Justin Gaethje. This should be a fireworks show, which is what it was designed to be. Gaethje's reputation to deliver Rocky-style performance is probably more important than his pro record of 27-5 ahead of this contest. Ilia Topuria is more well-rounded, with a nearly equal amount of knockout wins compared to submission victories in his career, whereas the vast majority of Gaethje's wins are via KO. It goes without saying that since Topuria is undefeated that he should be favored to win this one, and that's why I will pick him to get the victory. Essentially, Gaethje has a puncher's chance, but given how dangerous he is as a striker, it's a much more competitive puncher's chance than is usually associated with the term.
Outside of the co-main and main event fights, the other five bouts, at least on paper, could be hit or miss in terms of their quality of competition. For example, Micheal Chandler, as talented as he was as a wrestler in his prime, is on a three-fight skid and is 1-5 in his last six contests. The younger opponent Maurício Ruffy should be able to beat Chandler within two rounds. Josh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis might be a toss up because anything can happen in the heavyweight division. One thing is for sure, if Hokit tries to trade punches with Lewis the way that he did with Curtis Blaydes in his last fight, Lewis will win by KO early in the fight. Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus is a fight under the radar and will probably be moot in the grand scheme of things in the middleweight division. Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia is another fight that nobody seems to be talking about, but I think this featherweight contest will get viewers to take notice since the two competitors are known for action inside the octagon. Former Bantamweight champion, Sean O'Malley has a fan following, and given the level of competition or lack thereof that Aiemann Zahabi competed against prior to this, I'd say the expectation is that the younger O'Malley will be able to use his speed to get the win for this to be a showcase fight for him.
The fight card is a part of an entire weekend of festivities in honor of Emperor Palpatine's birthday, and while combat sports being put on the White House lawn so that Dana White can score brownie points with the president might be a silly concept, there are serious logistics that go into the event. The Associated Press reported that the UFC presentation will cost an estimated $60 million because of the amount of construction and security concerns involved. Various media outlets have reported that the UFC will lose around $30 million dollars on the production since they can't sell tickets to the event because it will be held at the White House, and the previously mentioned construction costs. Still, the $30 million dollar loss on the show itself will be minimal when being on good terms with Trump can yield exponentially more cash through merger approvals and potential sponsorships. When you take into account that Trump literally has a vested interest into the success of TKO since he bought stock, it could reveal that the White House card is about the eventual cash, not a fight card for the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment