Jun 12, 2026
There’s never been a UFC event quite like this one — and depending on your streaming setup, it may also be one of the cheapest major sporting events you watch all year.
On Sunday, June 14, the UFC is holding a seven-fight card on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. The event — officially dubbed UFC Freedom 250 — is timed to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
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President Donald Trump first announced the event during a rally in Iowa in July 2025 and UFC CEO Dana White confirmed plans were finalized in August 2025. The date also falls on both Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday.
Weigh-ins are expected at the Lincoln Memorial, and 85,000 free tickets have been made available for a public viewing area at the Ellipse. There are 4,300 invite-only seats on the South Lawn itself, at least 1,200 of which are for military members, Time reports.
How to watch and what it costs
The entire card starts at 8 p.m. ET and streams live exclusively on Paramount+ in the United States. And there are no prelims — every fight on the card is a main-card bout, according to Heavy.
This is where the financial picture for fight fans gets interesting. Under the UFC’s landmark seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount and CBS — which kicked off earlier this year — all UFC events are included as part of a standard Paramount+ subscription, with no additional pay-per-view fees.
According to Paramount+, the Essential plan runs $8.99 per month, while Paramount+ Premium costs $13.99 per month. Either plan includes full UFC access. White says CBS will not be televising the event.
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The fight card
The main event is a lightweight title unification bout between undisputed champion Ilia Topuria (17-0) and interim champion Justin Gaethje (27-5).
Topuria, 29, is one of the most dominant champions in the sport’s history — knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in round two at UFC 298 to win the featherweight title, stopping Max Holloway in round three at UFC 308 in the first featherweight knockout of Holloway’s career, then finishing Charles Oliveira in round one at UFC 317 to become a two-division champion.
Gaethje, 37, is regarded as one of the most exciting fighters in MMA history but hasn’t won an undisputed UFC title, losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2020 and Oliveira in 2022.
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The co-main event features former two-division champion Alex Pereira moving to heavyweight to challenge Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title. A win would make Pereira the first three-division champion in UFC history.
The rest of the card: Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi at bantamweight, Josh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis at heavyweight, Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler at lightweight, Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus at middleweight and Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia at featherweight.
The bigger picture for fans
For anyone who has been watching UFC costs climb over the past decade, the timing is notable.
Under the old ESPN+ model, each premium UFC event cost fans $79.99 on top of their base ESPN+ subscription. That per-event cost now disappears entirely under the Paramount+ deal.
That may be welcome news to Americans with subscription fatigue. Data from 2025 found the average U.S. household now pays for four streaming services, spending nearly $1,000 a year on streaming alone.
With all UFC events folded into a standard monthly subscription, the historic card staged on the South Lawn of the White House, is accessible to anyone with a Paramount+ account.
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
