UFC CEO Dana White and Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari have been “planning out the programming that will fill the downtime between fights” at UFC Freedom 250, which will be a “little different,” according to Alex Weprin of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Normally there would be “sizzle reels, hype videos and raucous music” in an arena, but for this, expect a “hefty dose of patriotic programming.” Borsari said, “This is a very patriotic moment for us to integrate a little bit about the history of this country, a little bit about celebrating our heroes and celebrating our independence.” White added from the “first fight of the night until the main event, we will tell the story of America.” The event, which will take place on June 14, is a “gambit for everyone involved given its high profile, and a costly bet” by TKO, which is covering all the costs. Aligning so directly with President Trump’s White House puts the UFC “in the middle of a politicized culture war at the exact moment it’ll have its highest exposure to the general public.” Paramount fully “expects to capitalize on the moment.” Paramount Head of Content Strategy and Licensing Efrain Miron mentioned that the company has “been closely monitoring the data.” The goal is to get UFC fans to “watch more content on Paramount+” and “introduce more fans to the UFC and grow that business, helping to amortize the cost of the long-term deal” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 6/4).
JUST DIFFERENT: UNCROWNED’s Ben Fowlkes wrote that the UFC Freedom 250 will be “weird” and “different.” It is probably “going to be totally unlike any other UFC fight week we’ve ever seen, because how could it not be?” White has done a ton of media for this event, and he has “hardly even spoken the names of the fighters.” Fowlkes added he keeps “waiting for that to change, thinking that maybe as the event gets closer the UFC will shift into actually promoting the fights and not just the political-cultural spectacle of the event itself.” Fowlkes: “If I were Ilia Topuria or Alex Pereira or Ciryl Gane, I might be feeling like I was just the hired help for a party that had very little to do with me” (UNCROWNED, 6/4).
