With the official announcement of the fight card for the UFC White House event, fans and fighters have been weighing in with mixed reactions.
The six-bout event takes place during the America Freedom 250 celebration on June 14 on the White House lawn. It features two world fights, but former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling was underwhelmed by the fight card.
“It’s only six fights, and that’s the best six fights that they could make,” Sterling questioned on his YouTube channel.
During the lead up to the announcement, President Donald Trump said the event would feature all title fights. UFC CEO Dana White promised the ‘best fight card’ in the promotion’s history. Sterling believes UFC matchmakers fell short of the mark.
“That’s what they said they were going to do. They said that. We didn’t do that,” said Sterling. “135 with O’Malley is cool. The O’Malley fight is cool if it were [Cory] Sandhagen. That’s a fight that means something. Not saying the Aiemann Zahabi fight doesn’t mean anything. It’s given Zahabi a great opportunity. But for this card, I thought they would have put more of the higher ranked guys. And I think the matchup that everyone wants to see is two, long, rangy strikers that are great at moving their feet compete while they’re in their prime. Make the matchup before, I don’t know, before it doesn’t make sense anymore. Right? That’s kind of how I’m looking at this.
“You have this marquee matchup that you could make on this card. Sandhagen’s been calling for it for a long time and then you decide, ‘Oh, here’s Zahabi.’ I don’t really get it,” continued the former champion.
“The [MIchael] Chandler fight, I get he’s American, diehard American and all of that. That’s cool, very patriotic. But him and Ruffy just doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense other than you’re trying to give Ruffy a big step up. Cool. It’s still a fun fight, but it’s not the fight that, to me, doesn’t really mean much. It’s a win if Ruffy can win. I imagine he’s going to come out as a big favorite. No slight to Chandler, but at the same time, being real, I think Ruffy should have been fighting somebody else if you’re going to put him on the card. Give it more of a fight that means something like title shot implications or something.”
“You say you’re going to deliver a big massive card. I just know if this is exactly it,” said Sterling. “I’m not trying to nitpick the whole thing. I just expected a little big more, I don’t want to say name value, but fights that mean something at the highest point of each division that they bring to the table. I just think there was a couple more fights that they could have probably did instead.”