UFC CEO Dana White addressed the upcoming White House event multiple times during his post-event press conference following UFC 327 in Miami. He detailed how Derrick Lewis and Josh Hokit ended up on the card and whether more matches could be added.
When asked how the Lewis vs. Hokit matchup came together, White walked reporters through a chaotic sequence of events that unfolded the very same night.
“So, what’s crazy is organically, about an hour before that, the president said to me, ‘Why is Derrick Lewis not on the White House card?'” White explained. “I said, ‘I’ll be back in 5 minutes.’ I went and called Derrick Lewis, said, ‘The president wants to know why you’re not on the White House card.’ And Derrick Lewis said, ‘Politics. Politics kept me off the White House card.'”
White said he immediately followed up to see if Lewis was interested in competing.
“And I said, ‘You want to compete on the card?’ and he said, ‘I absolutely want to compete on the card. Tell the president thank you,'” he continued. “So then I told Mick Maynard, find a match for Derek. Let’s talk about it next week and whatever.”
The situation escalated quickly after another matchup concluded, prompting an unexpected opportunity.
“Then the Hokit bout happens and Joe Rogan, I have the headphones on, Joe Rogan goes, ‘Is there another slot open on the White House card for Hokit?'” White recalled. “I go, ‘Holy s**t.’ So I grabbed Mick and I said, ‘Go back there and talk to see if he’s in,’ and Hokit was getting into an ambulance and said yes.”
When asked whether any additional matches could still be added to the card, White initially gave a definitive answer before leaving a small window of possibility.
“It’s all set,” he said. “Unless he calls me and tells me to do something else, there will be no more matches added to the card.” He then added, “But anything is possible. Yes.”
A reporter later asked whether he had taken a moment to reflect on what it means to host a UFC event on the White House lawn. White acknowledged that the magnitude of the moment has started to sink in.
“Yeah. You know, the deeper we get into it, yes. Yeah. It’s pretty crazy,” he said. He noted that even the president had expressed disbelief about the unprecedented event, recalling the reaction: “It’s crazy. We’re going to do this match on the White House lawn.”
