Dana White shows new images of how 85,000 fans will gather at the Ellipse to watch UFC White House

Dana White has provided a fresh update on the fan experience for those attending UFC White House.

The UFC has issued roughly 85,000 tickets, with fans able to register for free to watch the fights on screens from the Ellipse at the White House on June 14.

Not known, clear with picture desk

Not known, clear with picture desk

UFC White House, officially promoted as UFC Freedom 250, celebrates America’s 250th anniversary.

The promotion plans to take over Washington, DC, for the entire week, right up until Ilia Topuria defends his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje in the main event of fight night.

Also on the historic show, Alex Pereira moves up to heavyweight to face Ciryl Gane for the interim title, with Tom Aspinall currently out injured.

Furthermore, Sean O’Malley and Michael Chandler feature in respective bouts, and just last month, UFC president White added a heavyweight bout between Josh Hokit and Derrick Lewis to the card.

Dana White talks White House logistics

“My head of production, Craig Borsari, is the best in the business, and it’s literally all he’s working on right now, 24-7,” White told Fox News this week regarding putting the event together.

“He’s been at the White House a million times. We’re already starting to move stuff in. We’ll start loading in, like really loading in, a month before the show.

“Logistically, we’re getting our stuff together. Literally, just before I came out here, I had a ticket meeting. 

“I’m meeting with the President, and he keeps telling me that he’s never had an event where people have asked him for more tickets. I’m trying to figure out how to give him more tickets.”

Confirming the number for those cageside, White added: “There’s going to be 4,300 people there.

“I just literally went over it right now. 4,300 people, and most of them will be military.

Getty

“Across the street is the Ellipse. For those who don’t know, the Ellipse is a massive park. 

“You’ll be able to see the fight from the Ellipse, but we have screens, we got stages, we have music, we have activations over there.

“If you are a fan of the UFC, and especially if you have never been to Washington, DC, we’re going to give away about 85,000 tickets.

“We’re going to be doing all kinds of things in DC for fans, and it’s really a cool city for probably most people have never been. 

“And if you’re a UFC fan, this is absolutely, positively the time to come to DC.”

The June 14 show isn’t just the first time a UFC event has taken place at the White House, but it’s also the first time White’s promotion has put on an event outdoors in America.

Getty

White, who has never been a fan of the outdoors, explained everything his promotion has put in place to make sure the White House show goes ahead.

White: Only lightning will affect White House fights

“I hate outdoors,” he concluded.

“Outdoors is just way too unpredictable, and we’ve gone over this. 

“If it rains, we’re going. If it snows, we’re going. The only thing that will stop us is lightning.

“But we’re working with the military. So the military knows the weather ten days out, and they’ll notify us every two hours, ten days out. Seven days out, they’ll notify us every hour. 

“There’s also another company that does it for concerts and things like that. They’re very good too. 

UFC Schedule

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s UFC schedule.

“So what could happen is, the only thing that kills us is lightning. So we could move the event two hours earlier, two hours after.

“These are all things that we’ll be playing with the week of the event, on top of all the other things that we’ll have going on, which we never had to deal with.”