Justin Gaethje will look to finally get his hands on undisputed UFC gold this summer when he challenges Ilia Topuria for the UFC Lightweight Championship at The White House on June 14. Gaethje earned the right to face Topuria by defeating Paddy Pimblett to become the interim champion, making him the first man to win an interim title twice, but he has never held the elusive undisputed strap for himself, and while he will do everything in his power to dethrone “El Matador,” Gaethje knows exactly what kind of task is in front of him.

During the UFC Freedom 250 press conference, Gaethje was asked where Topuria stacks up in terms of his past opponents given that “The Highlight” has faced nearly all of the best lightweights of his generation. Rather than downplaying the current champion for a reaction from the crowd, Gaethje admitted that only one man looks to have been more of a test than what Topuria will look to be at The White House. “I think he’s my second toughest test ever next to Khabib [Nurmagomedov],” Gaethje said. “Yeah those three knockouts, [Alexander] Volkanovski, [Max] Holloway, [Charles] Oliveira, yeah legendary. So it’s just going to make this win that much more spectacular.”

Topuria’s three fight run where he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, and Charles Oliveira is seen by many as one of the greatest runs in MMA history. “El Matador” won both the UFC Featherweight and Lightweight Championships in this run, became the first person to both knock down and knock out Holloway, and handed Oliveira his first knock out loss in eight years. However, Gaethje is known for his punching power, and considering that Khabib is also known as one of the best lightweights of all time, Gaethje knows he’ll have to pull out something special on The White House lawn.

Please credit the original source when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

UFC Freedom 250 at The White House is getting nearer with every passing day, and to promote the event, the UFC held a special press conference on May 8 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. All of the fighters who will be appearing on the card were present, as was UFC President Dana White, who kicked off the event by revealing a special bonus system for the show, courtesy of Crypto.com. 

“I wanted to announce that Crypto.com just put up $1 million for UFC White House fight bonuses. The guys that are involved in the fight of the night at The White House will split $600,000. Congratulations boys.” For those who are good at math, Splitting $600,000 leaves $400,000 left over from the $1 million that Crypto.com are putting up for the event. However, the two men who win the Performance of the Night bonuses will earn $200,000 each, bringing the overall bonus total to $1 million. It was not confirmed whether the finish bonuses that are awarded to fighters who keep their fights from going the distance will be boosted for this event, or if they will be active at all, but they have been handed out at every UFC event as of late so time will tell on that financial front.

Despite the size of the event, the Performance of the Night bonus of $200,000 is not the biggest bonus that the UFC has handed out for that award. That honor goes to the $300,000 that was given to both Max Holloway and Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300 in 2024, though the $600,000 is the biggest bonus in UFC history for the Fight of the Night.

Please credit the original source when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Following Roman Reigns defeating Jacob Fatu at WWE Backlash and Fatu choking him out after, Reigns was determined to have his cousin acknowledge him. Backstage on “Raw,” Jimmy Uso tried to convince Reigns to let it go. Reigns argued that he signed a contract and he had to follow through to follow order and if there’s disrespect on the inside, there will be disrespect from the outside. Jey Uso waited in the parking lot for Fatu to try to keep him from going to the ring. When Fatu finally arrived during the main event, Reigns was already in the ring. Jey tried to stop Fatu, he took Jey out. On the way to the ring, he sent Jimmy into the barricades.

As soon as “The Samoan Werewolf” got in the ring, he and Reigns started whaling on each other. Reigns sent Fatu face first into the turnbuckle before Fatu returned the favor. Fatu sent Reigns over the top ropes and as Fatu went for a dive, Reigns was waiting with a Superman Punch. Reigns hit Fatu in the back repeatedly with a chair and yelled, “your a** is out of here! Acknowledge me! Acknowledge me!” He then repeatedly drove the chair into Fatu’s midsection. As he was about to deliver a spear, Fatu superkicked “The OTC.” He locked in the Tongan Death Grip and sent Reigns over the top rope again.

Fatu sent the champion through the announce table, breaking it. Security and Adam Pearce tried to stop him, but Fatu locked in the Tongan Death Grip again. Pearce pried Fatu off Reigns and told him “enough!” Instead, Fatu locked in another Tongan Death Grip. Fatu picked up the belt before leaving. As he walked up the ramp, he stopped before running around the ring and completely demolishing Reigns and the Usos when he sent them all through the barricade into the timekeeper’s area and celebrated as the show ended.

2026 has already been quite the year for Josh Hokit in the UFC. He defeated Denzel Freeman at UFC 324 in January, before going to war with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327 three months later in what is already considered by many to be one of the best heavyweight fights in UFC history. The fight was so critically acclaimed that Hokit earned himself a spot on the UFC Freedom 250 card at The White House in June, but his attempts at character work ended up with him being kicked out of the press conference designed to promote the biggest UFC event of all time.

Ilia Topuria just had to be HELD BACK by security after Josh Hokit disrespected Alex Pereira and said he’s gonna “Chama on his mama”

Bottles thrown and the presser shut down 🤯 pic.twitter.com/mFMiFWUg78

— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) May 8, 2026

During the press conference, Hokit repeatedly took shots at former UFC Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira, even going as far as to insult Pereira’s mother. While Pereira remained calm, primarily because the translator didn’t tell him the exact details of what Hokit said, one person who did take Hokit’s comments personally was UFC Lightweight Champion Ilia Topuria, who stood up for Pereira instead. Topuria would tell Hokit to shut up, which caused Hokit to call Topuria a “midget” who wouldn’t do anything. Topuria proceeded to throw an object directly at Hokit’s face, who was escorted off stage while still throwing insults at Pereira and Topuria, this time making fun of Topuria’s ex-wife.

Hokit was escorted out of the building as he was not allowed to do his face-off with his opponent for UFC Freedom 250, Derrick Lewis, with that being the only stare-down that didn’t happen in front of the live audience. Hokit would keep himself busy over the weekend as he almost got into a fight with Paulo Costa at UFC 328, but despite all of these disturbances, Hokit is still set to compete on The White House lawn.