UFC CEO Dana White has revealed that another major UFC spectacle could already be in the works following the enormous global attention generated by the promotion’s historic White House event.
Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, White confirmed that UFC head of production Craig Borsari has presented him with a new concept that he is excited about, although the idea remains in its early stages. He said:
“We are talking about something right now that Craig Borsari came up with. I love it. I have to do some more ground work on it.”
Check out Dana White’s comments below:
White did not reveal where or when the proposed event could take place, but his comments suggest the UFC is already looking for another unconventional venue capable of generating the same level of attention as its recent landmark events.
White House Success Came At A Huge Cost
UFC Freedom 250 at the White House was a commercial gamble unlike anything the promotion had attempted before. Dana White previously stated that the June event reportedly cost around $60 million to stage, with TKO Group Holdings ultimately recording an approximately $30 million loss.
However, the financial loss does not tell the full story.
The event became a massive global spectacle, attracting enormous media coverage and putting the UFC in front of sports fans beyond its traditional MMA audience. TKO executives estimated roughly $1 billion in earned media value, while the event also helped generate new long-term commercial partnerships.
The UFC itself highlighted the extraordinary public response, with around 60,000 people attending the weigh-ins and nearly 200,000 gathering around the White House grounds over two days despite the limited number of people permitted inside the event.
The White House card followed the UFC’s equally ambitious move into Las Vegas’ Sphere for UFC 306 in 2024. That event generated a record $22 million live gate, although its enormous production costs demonstrated how expensive these one-off spectacles can become.
White has since made it clear that he does not intend to repeat either production in the same form, largely because of the financial demands involved.
Dana White Still Open to the Colosseum Idea
The UFC previously explored an even more ambitious possibility: staging an event at Rome’s historic Colosseum.
Dana White revealed that serious negotiations took place around a potential event featuring Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. However, the Colosseum reportedly demanded approximately $150 million to host the event, with the money intended for restoration efforts across Italy. White ultimately described the idea as impossible without outside financial backing.
Despite shutting the proposal down, White left the door open if someone was willing to provide the necessary funding, effectively making the Colosseum a possibility rather than a permanent rejection.
That philosophy appears to remain intact. The White House proved that the UFC can capture worldwide attention by taking the sport into extraordinary locations, while the financial consequences showed the limits of doing so without sufficient backing.
Now, with Borsari already pitching another ambitious concept, Dana White appears determined to find the next spectacle capable of pushing the UFC beyond the traditional arena setting.
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