The UFC Fights Were Downright Awesome. Stop Pretending Otherwise.
What critics called dystopian felt surprisingly normal in person.
Did y’all hear about the savage cage matches hosted on the White House Lawn this past Sunday?
Did you know there was punching, kicking, choking, and chest-beating? Some guy even did a backflip. Just one shameless display of hypermasculinity after another.
Before I got to the event, I thought the F in UFC stood for fascism, but a blue-collar Republican in the crowd told me it was for “fighting.”
The octagon was built on the South Lawn and covered by a gargantuan 92-foot steel structure, weighing around 600 tons, known as “The Claw.”
I thought, “What a spooky name.”
The blue-collar Republican thought it was “awesome.”
Personally, I don’t know how to have fun or how not to make everything about politics, so the event, for me, felt aggressive, nationalistic and borderline authoritarian. But to everyone else, it looked suspiciously like a UFC event.
In all seriousness, I attended UFC Freedom 250, and upon leaving the event, I scraped my knee, looked down, and can confirm I now bleed red, white and blue.
I’ll give the gripers one thing, though: Joe Rogan’s tie was definitely too short.
The disconnect between my experience and the way the media reported on this event is so stark that I can only assume it’s intentional. I didn’t see the authoritarian spectacle the press is describing. Instead, I saw tens of thousands of Americans having the time of their lives.
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The Ultimate Fighting Championship hosted a “one-of-one” mixed martial arts event to celebrate 250 years of being the best damn country this world has ever seen.
The celebrations kicked off with press conferences backdropped by the Lincoln Memorial. Fighters stood in front of thousands of cheering fans on the Ellipse for the ceremonial weigh-ins. The U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team dove from sunsetting skies over the Washington Monument with American flags in hand. They even had a bald eagle fly over the grounds. Zac Brown Band put on an outstanding performance, jamming at one point with the U.S. Army Band and closing, of course, with “Chicken Fried.”
May freedom forever fly. Let it ringgggg. You know the one.
Sunday was the “bloody cage match,” which can be described as nothing short of totally and irrefutably awesome.
Upward of 85,000 fans gathered together, cold beers in hand, anticipating what would become one of the most thrilling UFC cards in the sport’s history.
The fried chicken guy came out again and sang a beautiful rendition of the national anthem. During which, the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flew overhead in their “Super Delta” formation, which basically means there were twelve jets instead of the four you would typically see in a flyover.
As for the so-called “brawls,” zero fights went to a decision. It was knockout after knockout … after knockout.
Underdog Justin Gaethje pulled out an unexpected win despite entering with six-to-one odds against him, then delivered an inspiring speech to close out the night:
“Hey, I’m from America. Two hundred and fifty years ago, we were way bigger than six-to-one dogs, and look at us thriving now.”
He thanked God, former and current military service members, police officers, firefighters, and first responders for their service.
Topuria was reportedly released from the hospital earlier this week.
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According to the media, however, the event was garish, militaristic, crass, violent, and tacky.
NBC News, apparently encountering the sport for the first time, reported in an alarmed tone that “more than a dozen fighters were moments away from punching, kicking and choking each other.”
Someone alert the authorities! Everything is going exactly as planned!
The Los Angeles Times suggested there was “political and psychological messaging” concealed within the event.
They elaborated:
“When strutting, preening and wild-eyed reaction revolves around what was, for better and worse, a series of rules-free brawls being force-fed into a narrative about this country’s enduring strength, what emerges is not so much a sporting event as it is a piece of naked and nationalistic propaganda.”
This is the part where I should say, “touch grass,” right?
Then they claimed the event served as “an almost-six-hour ad for the UFC.”
I’m not even sure what to say to this one. Does that mean the NBA Finals were a five-day ad for the NBA? Or the Superbowl for the NFL? Take a breather, LA Times. No one knows what you’re talking about.
But they did relent, noting the tens of thousands of Fan Fest attendees were “clearly having a very good time.”
Hell yeah we were.
The Daily Kos also had some strong opinions, remarking that it was a “deeply unpatriotic move” to let fighters warm up “barefoot and shirtless” in the “White House’s historic Indian Treaty Room.”
It’s the pearl-clutching emphasis on the bare feet for me. Also, find the irony here.
As always, there were some unsolicited celebrity opinions on the matter.
Sheryl Crow, the American country singer from Tennessee, posted an Instagram story, and we all know how effective Instagram stories are. She wrote: “To stay quiet means to turn a blind eye. What happened last night on the lawn of the White House was disgraceful and void of decency.”
Jemele Hill, an American sports journalist, said the event “has the feel of a Klan rally.”
Inventive. Inspired.
But we’ll end on a positive note with comments from ESPN’s Jay Williams, who said: “It was a better event than the NBA Finals. With the White House literally being right there, incredible.”
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Williams is exactly right. The event was historic and symbolic. Against a backdrop of endless political cynicism, tens of thousands of Americans gathered at the White House to celebrate their country, watch world-class athletes compete, and have a genuinely great time.
Some are (I am) comparing it to a Mosaic miracle. The storm split in two and the very scary bugs vanished.
The media saw authoritarianism. I saw a UFC fight.
As a general rule of thumb, if it looks like a UFC fight and quacks like a UFC fight, it probably is just a UFC fight.
And this one was awesome.
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The problem with the LEFT WING ELITES is that they refuse to understand human nature. Yes we are human but we are also animals and as animals we act like them often. However, we always take it further due to our higher intelligence. Mammals of which we are in that group, fight for territory all the time. The physical fights are usually between and among the males but even females have a pecking order in all female groups with the Alpha Female (usually associated with the Alpha Male) ruling the females in the group. There are survival reasons for this behavior, it serves a purpose, otherwise it would have been discarded long ago. A strong AND ABLE (NOTE THE WORD ABLE) leader is important to have to lead the group and protect against those who want to prey on the group. Humans are not the only animals that fight each other in groups, that might surprise people but is true. Apes, the animals most like us, form groups which fight each other all the time, though the Chimps are the Most aggressive and the larger gorillas are usually much more peaceful. We have to find constructive ways to channel our anger and aggressivness so that we do not annihalate each other in a global conflict which is totally possible now that we have nuclear weapons. Rember it only would take one nuclear war to destroy civilization as we know it. IN SUCH A CASE WE WILL NOT GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO SAVE OURSELVES!