MMA analyst Luke Thomas has been one of the loudest skeptics of the UFC’s planned White House event. On a recent episode of his show, he laid out exactly why he believes the event is set up to disappoint. Here is what he said, in his own words.
Talking about the issue of crowd atmosphere, Thomas read a comment: “How bad or boring will the White House event sound when it comes to crowd atmosphere? I imagine it’ll sound worse than when the UFC holds a match at the Apex.”
Thomas agreed with the comment and explained that the outdoor setting, combined with the expected lack of real fans, could drain the energy from the event.
“It’ll take place outside with no diehard fans or even casuals to cheer for all the excitement that will probably take place,” he said, adding that the audience would likely be “just a bunch of politicians and celebrities who know nothing about MMA.”
Thomas also pointed to security restrictions as a major factor shaping the audience. “You’re not getting on that White House lawn unless the Secret Service has done a background check on you,” he noted. “That’s going to be much easier to facilitate if they’ve already got one on you that’s relevant and usable on file.”
With no public ticket sales, he questioned who would actually fill the space: “They’re not selling tickets to the fans. So who do you think is going to be in attendance?”
Looking at past attempts to stage matches in unconventional venues, Thomas suggested this wouldn’t be the first time a unique idea failed to translate into a compelling live experience. “Every time promoters tried to do this, like when Turki tried to do the thing in Times Square, it sounded kind of cool,” he said. “And then look what it ended up being. It had a weird atmosphere.”
Drawing from his experience living in Washington, D.C., Thomas was blunt about the type of crowd he expects.
“It’s going to be the KPMG class, the Deloitte class,” he said, clarifying that he didn’t mean those companies specifically, but rather a certain corporate demographic. “These are not MMA fans.”
He went on to explain what separates genuine fans from those simply in attendance. “Dana White could never attend another match the rest of his life and he’ll always be a MMA fan in my eyes,” he said, referring to Dana White.
He continued: “By contrast, you could keep him out and then make Mark Shapiro go to matches the rest of his life and Mark Shapiro will never be a fan in my eyes.” For Thomas, the difference comes down to a natural connection to the sport, something he believes can’t be replicated.
That distinction, he argued, is critical to creating a memorable event. “If you want a great rocking atmosphere, you’ve got to fill those stands with combat fans,” he said. “You want people who know what they’re looking at. Real good fans will respect the athlete or certainly respect the moments that need to be respected.”
Without that, he suggested, even big moments inside the cage could fall flat. “If you want those kinds of things, you’ve got to have those kinds of fans.”
Thomas also cast doubt on the event’s potential scale. “I don’t think 85,000 people are going to fill up that area,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that star power could change things. “If you had Conor on the card, if you had Jon on the card, now I can see some overflow scenarios.”
Without names like Conor McGregor or Jon Jones attached, though, he remains unconvinced: “But you didn’t put any of them on the card.”
