Dana White is on the cover of TIME Magazine before UFC Freedom 250, and the feature included one clean fight-news item for the White House card. White said the UFC tried to add Zhang Weili vs. Mackenzie Dern, but the women’s strawweight title fight did not come together.
UFC Freedom 250 is scheduled for June 14 on the South Lawn of the White House. The card is headlined by Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje for the lightweight title, with Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane set for the interim heavyweight title. The event is being built around America’s 250th anniversary celebration and White’s long relationship with President Donald Trump.
White has run the UFC since 2001, when Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought the company and made him president. The UFC later sold for $4 billion in 2016, and White remained in charge after the company became part of TKO Group Holdings. He was named UFC CEO in 2023.
TIME’s new cover: Dana White helped turn MMA from a fringe blood sport into a global empire through the rise of the UFC. Now, he’s bringing it to the White House’s South Lawn.
“There are some nights, I’ll get up at the end and go, ‘What the f-ck do I do for a living?’”… pic.twitter.com/qXosIuWSUW
— TIME (@TIME) May 26, 2026
White Says UFC Tried To Add Zhang vs. Dern
The current UFC Freedom 250 lineup does not include a women’s fight. In the TIME feature, White said the UFC attempted to book Dern against Zhang.
“We did try to make a women’s fight,” White told TIME. “We couldn’t get it done.”
TIME reported that White said Zhang is taking time off from fighting. The outlet also noted that a representative for Zhang did not respond to a request for comment.
Dern is the UFC strawweight champion, while Zhang is a former strawweight champion. Adding that fight would have put a women’s title bout on the White House card and given the event another international name alongside Topuria, Pereira, Gane, and other fighters already attached to the lineup.
White also addressed why Jon Jones was not part of the card. Jones has said he was “lowballed” in negotiations for the event. White told TIME he built the lineup around fighters he trusted to make it to fight night.
“I have to build a card of people that I’m confident in and I believe will show up to the fight,” White said. “And Jon Jones is the least dependable guy that you could ever know.”
The card did get one change after Trump asked why Derrick Lewis was not included. White added Lewis and matched him with Josh Hokit, who had just fought at UFC 327 and had already become part of the Freedom 250 conversation.
White closed the TIME piece by pointing to the work still left before fight night.
“We’ve got to get it all dialed in, and then we have to execute that night,” White said. “We’re putting on the most historic sporting event in history, and now we have to deliver. We will absolutely, positively deliver.”
The TIME cover gives White and UFC Freedom 250 a larger mainstream spotlight, but the fight-news takeaway is straightforward. The UFC wanted Zhang vs. Dern on the card, could not finalize it, and will move forward with two title fights unless another change is made.
Related: White previously said a Trump Rose Garden dinner exposed a bug problem for the UFC White House setup, while Josh Hokit was removed from the UFC Freedom 250 presser after clashing with Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira.
