Dana White, the UFC’s CEO and President, is featured on the cover of the current issue of TIME Magazine.
MMA fans and White himself no doubt consider that a big deal for the sport, and the promoter personally, though being TIME Magazine, the accompanying story is more geared towards a general audience.
However, the article does quote White, who reveals during it the fight that slipped away from the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House. That would be Mackenzie Dern vs. Weili Zhang, which would have been a third title fight on the much-anticipated card, alongside Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje and Ciryl Gane vs. Alex Pereira.
“We did try to make a women’s fight. We couldn’t get it done,” White said of the White House card, revealing to TIME that the fight in question was Dern vs. Zhang. Mackenzie captured the women’s strawweight title against Virna Jandiroba last year, after Zhang vacated her belt for a failed bid to win gold at 125lbs opposite Valentina Shevchenko.
Per White, the reason the fight didn’t get booked was that Zhang is taking time off from fighting.
Neither Weili Zhang, nor Mackenzie Dern, have fought fought in 2026 thus far. UFC Freedom 250 at the White House takes place on June 14.
It’s unclear as to whether Dern vs. Zhang was the fight White was alluding to back in March when he revealed that one planned bout for the White House event had fallen through. “One of the fights literally just fell out when I walked in here. I think Hunter [Campbell] killed himself,” White deadpanned on a live stream with Nina-Marie Daniele.
Although originally announced with just six fights, a seventh featuring heavyweight Derrick Lewis taking on Josh Hokit was added weeks back, after U.S. President Donald Trump questioned why Lewis, one of his favorite fighters, wasn’t on the card.