Mailbag: What are the biggest storylines of the UFC White House card — and what will be the story once it's over?
The UFC White House event is just a few days away. What will we be talking about once it's over? And how many people should we realistically expect to join this particular party? And what about the fighters who will not be in attendance? All that and more in this week's mailbag.
The UFC White House event is just a few days away. What will we be talking about once it's over? And how many people should we realistically expect to join this particular party? And what about the fighters who will not be in attendance?
All that and more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes on Threads.
@NoahSas23: This is a really fun fight card in the White House coming up, what are the top storylines you're expecting to come out after the event is wrapped up?
You're totally right. The fight card itself does have a lot of interesting stuff going on. It's struggling to be noticed right now, what with the inescapable political optics of the event and the focus on the venue and the setup as the true star of the show, but once the cage door closes we should get some good, memorable stuff out of this lineup.
So let's focus on that first. (More on the other stuff in a moment.) My expectation is that Ilia Topuria sparks Justin Gaethje and makes it look pretty easy. Gaethje always has a puncher's chance. This we know. But the version of him we saw against Paddy Pimblett was too slow, too predictable and just all around too vulnerable to pose much threat to Topuria beyond a lucky haymaker (though championships have been won and lost on those before).
If it goes that way, I think the calls for Topuria to face Islam Makhachev will get even louder. But I doubt the UFC will want to pay extra for that fight, so it'll probably be Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan next instead.
The heavyweight affair is a lot tougher to call. I could see it going either way, but it almost doesn't matter who wins. Tom Aspinall has to be next for either Alex Pereira or Ciryl Gane. He absolutely has to be. And either way it goes we should get a huge fight out of it.
@MHMFoster: What's the expectation the Monday after the event? Water cooler talk, significant jump in Paramount + subs, sustained mainstream interest?
