Ahead of the UFC’s Freedom 250 event on Sunday, a report from The Washington Post claimed that some reporters from the White House press corps wouldn’t be allowed on the White House grounds during the UFC event. According to the report, the White House was ceding control over who gets into the South Lawn during fight night over to the UFC. As such, most reporters would be barred from attending the event despite having White House press access. This has invited backlash over the apparent restriction put on the press from covering an event at the White House. The resulting controversy has prompted Dana White to weigh in on the issue and clarify the stance of his promotion.

While speaking about UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland’s rumored ban, the UFC CEO claimed that the promotion hasn’t banned anyone from attending the event. The same extends to media members as well.

“Of course Sean Strickland isn’t banned,” White clarified. “Sean Strickland is banned from humanity. We don’t want him near any human beings anywhere. He shows up at Power Slap and starts fights. He made it very clear he didn’t want to be a part of this event, and now he’s banned, apparently. Nobody is banned. Nobody’s music is banned; no media members have been banned.”

This suggests, firstly, that the promotion hasn’t banned Sean Strickland as the UFC champ earlier claimed. Secondly, the rumors that claimed Diego Lopes’ signature walkout song, “La Chona,” was banned for the UFC Freedom 250 event are evidently not true. And lastly, no media members have been banned by the promotion. However, this still does not do much to explain whether the UFC will determine which reporters get access to the event and which do not, as the report claims.

The issue surfaced after The Washington Post reported on an email from White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang, sent to members last week, outlining what appeared to be significant restrictions on media access to the June 14th event at the South Lawn.

“The WHCA has been pushing back on this, but we have been told there will be various Secret Service access points across campus and that the [White House North Lawn] is being used as a staging area for the fighters and UFC filming zone, and the [White House] is standing firm,” WHCA President Weijia Jiang noted in the email as per the report by Scott Nover.

Following this, Jiang’s email also made it clear that the UFC would allow only a “very limited number” of journalists to be present on the South Lawn during the event. Other journalists would have to watch the event from the adjacent Ellipse Park, where reportedly over 80,000 people will watch the fights, or from the JW Marriott Hotel. The report also stated that reporters would not be able to access their workspaces, the White House briefing room, or ‘Pebble Beach’, an area outside the lawn used for TV appearances.

“If you have not received a UFC press credential, you will need to utilize other public spaces in the area for any live shots,” Jiang noted in the email.

Once before in the past, the UFC has resorted to banning members of the media. However, the ban only applied to one individual in particular. In 2016, Dana White banned Ariel Helwani from covering UFC events after Helwani broke news of Brock Lesnar’s return fight at UFC 202 before the promotion’s official announcement. The UFC CEO was so livid that he has not allowed Helwani to cover a UFC event from the promotion’s premises since.

This time, however, reporters who were not credentialed for the event appear to have limited access to the South Lawn, even though Dana White has remained steadfast that media members are not essentially banned from the event. Addressing the controversy, a White House spokeswoman dismissed reports of a supposed media ban.

White House spokesperson rubbishes reports of a UFC media ban

Amid the ongoing controversy, The Washington Post reporter Scott Nover shared the news on X, claiming that the White House was effectively “closing its doors to reporters” on Sunday as a result of the UFC event. 

“The White House is closing its doors to reporters on Sunday, the day of the big UFC fight on the South Lawn, unless UFC lets them in,” Nover stated on X. “In a rare move, the White House is ceding control of all press credentialing to the mixed-martial-arts company.”

That post generated a prompt response from White House spokesperson Olivia Wales, who stated that the report was not true and that the White House had in fact extended its existing press pool.

“This is fake news. The White House Press Office has credentialed a press pool of 35 members for this historic event on Sunday, expanded from the normal press pool of 21 members,” Wales noted in her reply. “The pool will be providing full coverage on the South Lawn for the duration of UFC Freedom 250.” 

Whether the expanded 35-member White House pool fully addresses the concerns raised by the WHCA, particularly around briefing room access and broadcast positions, remains unclear with the event now only days away.