MMA analyst Luke Thomas has raised significant concerns about the upcoming UFC White House event in a recent YouTube video. He questioned whether it would achieve the viewership success Dana White predicts while warning about the political baggage attached to the historic card.
Thomas addressed viewers who announced they would boycott the White House event, acknowledging he receives “a fair amount of these” messages, likely because people view him as “a receptive audience to it.”
When discussing White’s claim that the event could become the most watched in UFC history, Thomas admitted it is possible. This is particularly given the simulcast on CBS and Paramount Plus, removing any paywall barriers.
Yet he emphasized that matchmaking quality will matter, noting the UFC “couldn’t just put nobody’s on that card” and expect record numbers.
He said: “I think it is absolutely on the table. However, I will just come
down to a couple of factors. Number one, the average hardcore fans, I should say, won’t even skip, you know, an event at the Apex. But to get the casual fan, I do think that some level of matchmaking will matter here… With the right kind of matchmaking and you know, good luck with the weather and all that kind of stuff, I think it could go it could do really well. ”
The political dimension presents what Thomas sees as the event’s central challenge. “Trump’s approval is steadily sliding,” he observed, noting the president is “hitting historic lows even relative to the first term.”
Thomas questioned what this declining enthusiasm means for the event, especially as Trump has been named in the Epstein files. Thomas believes Endeavor and TKO are not going to drop this event unless it becomes extremely controversial.
He stated: “Trump is all over the Epstein files and in ways that can sometimes can be at a bare minimum quite disturbing. To what extent does that follow him? My thought is that at the end of the day, Ari Emanuel and TKO are not going to bail on this event unless it becomes so radioactive that they have really no choice.”
However, he warned about the dual nature of media coverage: “It’s going to garner sports press. It’s also going to garner political press. And the political press is going to be much more adversarial and antagonistic towards it than the sports press is going to be.”
The analyst suggested that certain UFC star additions, particularly Conor McGregor, would “only add fuel to the fire to what kind of negative attention it ultimately generates.”
While acknowledging that reaching the White House represents remarkable progress for MMA given the sport’s difficult history with sanctioning and legitimacy, Thomas cautioned that “they’re doing it with a guy who’s the MVP all star of the Epstein files and that carries a significant amount of weight.”
Regarding potential protests, Thomas explained that MMA fans criticize him but he has valid reasons. He stated: “MMA fans have gotten on me for being what they consider to be negative about the card, but I’m just trying to tell you like how the rest of the world’s going to see it.”
