Dana White says he is breaking his own rule against outdoor MMA shows for a special “UFC White House” event planned on the South Lawn in Washington, DC next month.
White has long resisted taking the UFC outdoors and cites that reluctance as a key reason there has never been a UFC event in Hawaii. He now plans to make an exception in order to stage UFC White House and work with his longtime friend, current U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Another problem that I always think about, especially on the East Coast, bugs,” White said while explaining his hesitation about outdoor cards. He added, “President Trump just opened the Rose Garden two nights ago and he invited me to dinner there. The amount of gnats that were flying around … I’m like, ‘Holy sh*t.’ As soon as I got on the plane, I called my head production and said, ‘Yeah, let me tell you about the gnat situation tonight.’”
White laid out his concerns about how the production setup could attract insects during fights. “So when you’re a fighter, think about that lighting grid, the claw that we’re gonna have, the amount of power in the lights,” he said. “Moths, gnats, and God knows what else — fighters trying to deal with that. In your mouth, up your nose while you’re trying to fight. Maybe we put fans in because gnats have a hard time with the wind. These are all the little details that we have to think about. That’s why I don’t like fighting outside. Ever.”
White’s bug worries were compared by Rich Kleiman to an incident involving Joba Chamberlain in 2007.
