WASHINGTON — UFC heavyweight Josh Hokit was decked out in an American flag bandana and American eagle gloves as he delivered vigorous trash talk ahead of the company’s White House debut. Hokit wasn’t about to modify his style on the microphone just because he will fight Sunday night on the White House South Lawn in a mixed martial arts show timed to coincide with U.S. President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. “You’ll never see me apologize for anything I do,” Hokit said Wednesday. Well, the heavyweight is in the right city for that declaration. He was one of several fighters who added a dash of brashness and boldness in the nation’s capital just four days before the surreal juxtaposition of pummeling and patriotism set for Trump and UFC boss Dana White’s big-fight vision of UFC Freedom 250. Forget the Washington Monument. The claw, the temporary arena structure that houses the eight-sided cage, is the buzziest landmark this week in DC. Umbrellas were a necessary accessory around Washington early Wednesday and the threat of heavier rain later in the week, which could dampen both a scheduled press conference at the Lincoln Memorial as well as fight night, was the only true concern ahead of the fight card. White, who helped launch UFC into a global sports empire, insisted inclement weather will not keep Sunday’s spectacle from proceeding as scheduled. “We’re going to be good on Sunday,” White said this week. “I don’t care if it snows, rains, we’re going. Even lightning. You guys all played sports when you were growing up. Whenever there was lightning, you’d sit the lightning out. When it was over, you played. That’s what we’ll do.” While the South Lawn setting normally reserved for low-contact events like the annual Easter Egg Roll is the real star of the show, there are two championship fights set for the Paramount+ show. In a card that has been panned by fans online as underwhelming, Brazil’s Alex Pereira will meet France’s Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Then Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion Ilia Topuria takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje, one of just two Americans who currently hold even a share of the UFC’s 11 championship belts. UFC middleweight Bo Nickal and 250 fighter was a three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Penn State and met Trump in 2019 at the White House at a ceremony for collegiate national champions. “The president said hello to all the teams,” Nickal said Wednesday. “When he got to us, he was all excited because he likes wrestlers. He talked to us for maybe 10, 15 minutes because he likes chatting.” Nickal is set to fight on the main card Sunday against Philadelphia fighter Kyle Daukaus. Nickal called fighting on the show a “massive opportunity,” and one he may have manifested back in that 2019 meeting. “I told him at that time in 2019 that I was going to fight at UFC,” Nickal said. “He asked if I needed an agent. He’s put in a good word for me, obviously, getting on this card.” White, a long-time friend and former business associate of Trump from the days when Boardwalk cards at Trump Taj Mahal lifted UFC into relevancy, brushed off a federal lawsuit that seeks to halt the fight card. The filing Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of two Virginia residents contends the Trump administration’s authorization of the event was unlawful. The lawsuit says such approval violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, Congress did not consent to the towering arch overlooking the event space and no environmental review was conducted before the construction. “We were expecting a lawsuit,” White said. “We expected everything coming into this event. We thought it would be sooner. We knew it was going to come. We didn’t know who or who, but we knew it was going to come.” ___ Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
