'We couldn't' - Dana White reveals the one fight he failed to make for UFC White House card
Dana White has revealed the one fight he was unable to make for UFC's mammoth White House card next month.
On June 14, Donald Trump's 80th birthday, UFC will stage its biggest ever show on the South Lawn of the White House.
The 'UFC Freedom 250: The White House' event celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States with a stacked card headlined by Ilia Topuria's lightweight title defence against Justin Gaethje.
Also on the card is Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane locking horns for the interim heavyweight strap - putting them in contention to take on heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall when he returns from a serious eye injury.
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There are a total of seven bouts for the White House card, which will see thousands of military members present.
But the bill does not feature a single women's fight. In an new interview, White revealed that he intended to make a match-up between Mackenzie Dern and Weili Zhang for the women's strawweight championship.
READ MORE: Dana White reveals major problem for UFC White House event that he doesn't know how to solve
Dern became champion when she beat Virna Jandirob last year. Zhang was previously the ruler of the 115lbs division, but vacated the strap for an unsuccessful attempt at winning the flyweight women's championship after she lost to Valentina Shevchenko.
Telling TIME that Dern and Zhang fell through, White explained: "We did try to make a women’s fight. We couldn’t get it done.”
He stated that Zhang is taking time off from the Octagon, hence why no fight came to fruition.
Donald Trump forced Dana White into making surprise UFC White House bout
White and his matchmakers are responsible for the historic card but president Trump has also had important input.
While in attendance at the Kaseya Center for UFC 327 in Miami, Trump effectively called for his favourite fighter Derrick Lewis to be on the White House card.
White moved swiftly to call Lewis and made a fight between 'The Black Beast' and Josh Hokit, who moved to 9-0 with a win in Miami in April.
Speaking on a livestream, the UFC president said: "I'm sure you guys just saw the Hokit fight, right? About an hour ago, the president leans over to me and he says, 'Why is Derrick Lewis not on the White House card?' I said, 'Hold on a second Mr. President. I step away and I call Derrick Lewis. I said, 'Derrick, the president just asked me why you're not on the card - do you want to the fight on the White House card?',
"He goes, 'Of course I do, tell the president thank you I want to do it. Then the Hokit fight plays out. He beats the No.5 ranked guy in the world and Joe Rogan says, 'Is there still room on the White House card?'.
"We went back and talked to him. Hokit vs Derrick Lewis was just added to the White House card."
In his press conference, White said that he "shouldn't have" added an extra fight until Trump made the request and that "unless he calls me to tell me to do something else, there will be no more fights added".
Topics: UFC, Dana White
Josh Lawless