UFC fighter Bryce Mitchell made it clear that he believes the Freedom 250 event at the White House in June is an “egregious use of political favor.” 

Freedom 250 will emanate from an outdoor set-up on the South Lawn of the White House, with the Department of Homeland Security since declaring it an SEAR 1 event on par with the Super Bowl. The event will be held on President Donald Trump’s birthday, June 14, and is due to be privately attended with Dana White saying Trump had asked for service members to be given most of the tickets. 

Mitchell took to Instagram to discuss his thoughts on the event, saying that he believes the event is being used to “make people worship” Trump. 

“I do think the UFC is the best sport in the world,” he started. “However, this White House card, I do think is an egregious use of political favor to make people worship Donald Trump. They are trying to make the most popular sport and make it conducive to Trump’s campaign while he destroys this nation.”

“How much clearer does it get? This guy is trying to take over the world,” he continued. “But hey don’t worry, the fights are going to be great.”

In the caption of the video, he echoed antisemitic rhetoric while predicting the war with Iran gets worse with involvement from China and Russia, and called Trump an “Antichrist.

“I predict that this war gets so bad between us and Russia, China, Iran, that civil war breaks out in this country very soon. I also think Trump is an Antichrist of Revelation. Too bad for the jews, they can’t tell me [sic] wat to think and say. That sucks for their satanic regime.”

Mitchell is still with UFC at present and has tested once with Anti-Doping thus far this year, though he hasn’t fought since losing to Said Nurmagomedov – no relation to Khabib – via Unanimous Decision last July. 

Mitchell is a self-proclaimed Holocaust denier among a litany of other alternative ways of looking at happenings in the world.

It had been a strong WrestleMania season for “WWE Raw” on Netflix, with episodes consistently drawing 2.8 to 3.0 million global views over the course of the week ever since the end of February. So when the WrestleMania “go-home” edition of “Raw” aired last week, the question became whether “Raw” would see its numbers go up a bit more, or continue the steady pace the show has done over recent weeks.

The answer was more of that consistency. Wrestlenomics reports that the April 13 “Raw” drew 2.9 million views over the course of the week. This was the second straight week that “Raw” drew 2.9 million views, and the fifth consecutive week that “Raw” found itself with 2.8 million views or higher. Meanwhile, “Raw” had 5.6 million hours viewed over the week, up from 5.5 million on April 6. It was the first time “Raw” had more than 5.5 million hours viewed in three weeks. 

Meanwhile, “Raw” saw improvement and a slight dip in its placement in Netflix’s global and domestic top ten rankings. Globally, “Raw” placed 5th, up from 6th place one week prior; it’s the highest “Raw” has placed in the Netflix global top ten in at least the last four months. Domestically, “Raw” also placed 5th, down from 4th place a week prior. It ties the March 30 episode for the lowest “Raw” has placed domestically in the last five weeks, though there will likely be few complaints regarding “Raw” staying in the Top 5.

As one would expect, the final “Raw” before WrestleMania featured plenty of build for WrestleMania, with CM Punk and Roman Reigns coming face to face one last time before Reigns defeated Punk six days later. Some non-WrestleMania related activities also occurred on the show, with Kairi Sane defeating former friend IYO SKY in singles action.

Following her controversial loss to Natalia Silva at UFC 324, Rose Namajunas had to step away from action to have surgery on her eye that was damaged in the bout with Silva. The former UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion was the victim of a number of eye pokes courtesy of Silva, which ended up requiring a silicone tube being placed in Namajunas’ tear ducts for three months to help repair the damaged.

Taking to Instagram earlier this week, Namajunas provided an update on her health, as well as video evidence of the tube being removed from her eye, and an idea on how to cut down on eye pokes in the UFC going forward.

Namajunas wrote, “So you wanna be a fighter? Three months and now I’m healthy finally. Thumb and eye are all fixed up. I’m a bit out of shape but I’m cleared to train now. I really hope eye pokes will be taken more seriously in the future. I propose instant purse deduction even for an accident. An accident that could seriously affect a fighters health long term. Anyways I’m just grateful that it was not more serious. #itsnotthegloves” On cards since UFC 324, eye pokes have resulted in points being taken from fighters during fights, including two of the three UFC Fight Pass preliminary fights on the UFC 327 card.

“Thug Rose” wasn’t even supposed to face Silva at UFC 324 to begin with as she originally meant to face Alexa Grasso. However, Grasso was forced to pull out of the fight due to an injury. Now that she is back ready to train, she will be looking to return the cage in the coming months, and with her being ranked sixth in the women’s flyweight rankings, Namajunas will want another win or two to get her back into title contention.

The UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on June 14 as well as its adjacent Fan Festival on the Ellipse has been designated by Homeland Security as events on par with the Super Bowl.

The Department of Homeland Security uses Special Event Assessment Ratings – SEAR – to classify major events from levels one to five, determining the level of federal security support required. SEAR 1-3 events are considered to be of national or international importance, with SEAR 1 requiring the most extensive inter-agency assistance. 

A spokesperson for DHS confirmed to Wrestling Inc. that UFC Freedom 250, due to be held on the South Lawn of the White House in June, has been designated SEAR 1 – putting it on par with the Super Bowl, the Chicago Marathon, and the Rose Bowl Game. For reference, the Indianapolis 500 and Kentucky Derby are traditionally designated SEAR 2, and the PGA Masters Tournament designated SEAR 3. 

The specific federal agencies who will be supporting the event will not be decided until approximately one month before it takes place, which DHS said is the typical timeline for an event of this kind. 

The White House event itself will not be a publicly attended event, with the Ellipse due to host fans instead. UFC President Dana White has previously said President Donald Trump, whose birthday the event falls on, wanted most of the tickets to be distributed to US service members. 

Current UFC Lightweight Champion Ilia Topuria will be back in action on June 14 when he headlines the UFC Freedom 250 card at The White House against the Interim Champion, Justin Gaethje. However, the man that many people thought had been snubbed of a chance to become the Interim Champion was Arman Tsarukyan, who is currently ranked number two in the lightweight rankings. 

Topuria was a recent guest on “The Ariel Helwani Show” where he was asked about the idea of facing Tsarukyan at some point as many fans believe he is the true number one contender. Topuria stated that he will be ready for any opponent at The White House, but when it comes to Tsarukyan making a name for himself outside of the UFC, the champion isn’t impressed. “I’m really impressed at how dumb he is,” Topuria said. “He’s a r*****, I don’t know, he looks like a kid. He is a kid, like his mentality, he’s like–he’s dumb as f***. I don’t know, everything that I saw about him on the internet, it’s embarrassing a little bit…f*** Arman.”

In the past few weeks, Tsarukyan has choked out a KICK streamer in public, been kicked off an aircraft for not taking his seat, and tackled Urijah Faber off the stage at an RAF event in Philadelphia. He has also been showing off some expensive purchases on social media, which Topuria thinks is a big act. “The thing that I don’t like is when they play that they are rich and they show all that money, and it’s like ‘Bro, you’re not even rich, you are that poor that the only thing that you have is money, and you are spending your father’s money, not even yours…he’s a f****** kid.”

Topuria rounded off by saying that Tsarukyan and his friends act like gangsters on social media but act very differently in person, and stated that Tsarukyan isn’t on his level if they ever met in the cage, which Topuria thinks would end with him breaking Tsarukyan’s jaw.

Please credit “The Ariel Helwani Show,” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.