The UFC White House event is just a few months away. The historic card is going to be part of America’s 250th anniversary, and excitement is high. But the historic venue immediately raised concerns about which sanctioning body could legally oversee it, as it will be hosted at the lawns of the White House, federal land. To address those doubts, UFC has finally found a solution.

“UFC, today announced that the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) will serve as an independent third party to advise on the regulatory operations for the unprecedented UFC event scheduled for Sunday, Jun. 14, on the grounds of the iconic White House, one of the most significant and renowned locations in the world, per an announcement on UFC.com.”

Initially, the expectations from the UFC were to rope in the District of Columbia Combat Sports Commission as the regulatory authority. To that end, Chairman Andrew Huff also approached the leading MMA promotion to get them on board and take the necessary permits. However, Dana White & Co. shared a different opinion.

Since the White House is a federal property, the UFC executives weren’t interested in paying the amount to a local sanctioning body to oversee the historic event. And for this, the concerns rose up. Typically, if a combat sports event does not have a sanctioning body overseeing its event, the matchups on the card would be classified as non-regulated bouts and would carry no official recognition.

Consequently, the outcomes of the fights on that particular card would not be reflected on the fighters’ professional records. Now, there have been times when Dana White & Co. have attempted to bypass some mandates through loopholes.

Take the example of UFC 249, which was marred by a buzzing controversy. The Tachi Palace Casino Resort, located on the sovereign tribal land of the Tachi-Yokut Tribe in California, was set to host the event on April 18, 2020. Interestingly, this was at a time when the California State Athletic Commission had banned combat sports.

But the UFC CEO was ready to bypass the ban with an attempt to use the resort’s status on sovereign tribal land. Ultimately, White did not move forward with exploiting the loophole after officials from Disney and ESPN came in with their requests. And UFC 249 was postponed, and Florida became the revised location a month later.

However, unlike that occasion, this time, Dana White & Co. didn’t pay heed to the local authority’s requests as they tied up with a higher authority. The Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) is a national body in the sense that it provides a central, unified framework for combat sports regulation across the United States and Canada.

And for the UFC White House event, ABC will step in as the sanctioning body overseeing the event. While the regulatory authority for the event is good to go, what matchups are actually taking place at the historic event?

A look into the UFC White House card featuring Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira

The UFC White House event will go down on June 14 as part of America’s 250th celebration. On top of that, it also coincides with POTUS Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. For the leading MMA promotion, it is a one-of-a-kind event, and citing that, they claim to put forward their best possible card.

Headlining the event will be a UFC lightweight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. Both possess immense striking prowess, with Topuria having six knockouts in his UFC career, while Gaethje has five. Moving towards the co-main event, Alex Pereira‘s UFC heavyweight debut is set to go down.

Eyeing a historic three-division champion record, ‘Poatan’ will fight Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. Not only that, but the card also features standout American fighters such as Sean O’Malley, Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal, Kyle Daukaus, and Steve Garcia, against formidable counterparts, which include Aiemann Zahabi, Mauricio Ruffy, and Diego Lopes.

The card promises a lineup of six exciting matchups, and as of now, the event is fully scheduled for June 14. That said, do let us know your predictions for the historic event below!