After holding spectacles at magnificent venues like the Sphere in 2024 and the White House this year, the UFC’s next major event was rumored to take place at Mount Rushmore. During an interview with Barstool Sports, Dana White didn’t confirm whether an event would take place at the national memorial, but he swirled rumors by saying he “loved the area.” Alas, that doesn’t seem to be a possibility anymore.

The 57-year-old addressed the rumors on The Pat McAfee Show and stated that holding an event at Mount Rushmore isn’t among the promotion’s immediate plans.

“That’s what drives me crazy about when you do a podcast or something like that,” White said. “You know, the rumor is now that I’m doing Mount Rushmore. So I’m doing this interview with this kid, and he says, you know, ‘I was thinking that you probably would do it at Mount Rushmore next.’  And I just laughed and said, you know… But I didn’t say that the kid did. It’s definitely not.

“And when people ask me, like, yes, I did a ton of media yesterday, and everybody’s like, ‘So, if this guy fights this guy, will this be the next fight?’ I’m like, I’m not even going to answer that because no matter what I say, I’ll wake up tomorrow and there’ll be 250,000 little s—tball Instagram, you know, f—g… that’ll be saying, ‘Dana White said that this guy’s fighting that guy.’ No, I didn’t say that. No, it is not going to be Mount Rushmore.” 

For the UFC, it would’ve been an incredible follow-up to the White House spectacle if they had actually held a show at Mount Rushmore. It would have continued the patriotic theme that the promotion evoked with its June 14th event. However, it’s understandable why White doesn’t want to hold a show at the iconic landmark because of the constraints that come with it.   

The National Memorial’s amphitheater can actually host events with a special permit, signifying that crowds can certainly attend shows. However, the Park Service’s website explicitly states that requests can be denied because of space, crowd size, staffing, logistics, and other factors associated with it. 

Plus, NPS also clarified that only non-commercial events can be approved, which means the UFC cannot sell tickets or other merchandise to actively generate a profit from the show. In that case, Dana White would face a similar problem to the one they had with the White House card.  

Despite spending a reported $60 million to produce Freedom 250, the promotion couldn’t generate revenue from ticket sales because they held the show on federal land. Because of this, the 57-year-old business mogul isn’t thrilled about putting on another show at a location that would once again prevent the promotion from recouping its massive investment.

Still, the possibility of the UFC holding another special event isn’t completely off the table. In fact, Dana White teased that an announcement is on the horizon.  

Dana White hints at another blockbuster UFC event   

Continuing his conversation with McAfee, Dana White further teased the possibility of another grandiose spectacle. He disclosed that Craig Borsari, the man behind the entire production of UFC Freedom 250, reached out to him last night, and an announcement could be coming in a couple of weeks.

“Actually, Cocky Craig Borsari just landed last night,” White added. “He’s been on the site where I want to do it for four days, checking out the possibilities of getting this done. So hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I can break it on the back of the show.”

With that revelation, the UFC CEO has everyone buzzing with excitement and anticipation about the promotion’s next spectacle. But this isn’t actually a new admission from Dana White. Back in August, he claimed that Borsari had already started working on their next grand event. However, White didn’t disclose anything about when or where the event would take place, and he certainly hasn’t revealed it now.

Out of all the possible locations, White actually wanted to hold a superfight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at the Colosseum. But negotiations ended up derailing the event because White said the authorities wanted to charge the UFC $150 million. So, it wouldn’t be out of character for the UFC CEO to actually make that a reality with enough investment backing him.

That said, with Mount Rushmore gone from the equation and White teasing a new venue, it would be intriguing to see what the announcement ultimately reveals.