Dana White Becomes First Combat Sports Promoter on Time Magazine Cover

Dana White has made the cover of Time Magazine — a first for any combat sports promoter — with the feature arriving less than three weeks before UFC Freedom 250 at the White House on June 14.

The cover story traces the arc of White's career from the UFC's early days on the fringes of American sport to the moment a sitting president called his event the biggest ever held at the White House.

The in-depth piece is titled "The Promoter: How Dana White Took the UFC From the Fringes to the White House" and covers White's history with the organisation, his long-standing relationship with Donald Trump, and the story of how the June 14 card came together.

One significant revelation to emerge from the piece is that White had attempted to add a women's title fight to the card, targeting a strawweight championship bout between Mackenzie Dern and Weili Zhang. White's reasoning was that the international profile of the matchup would have expanded the card's global audience considerably. The fight did not come together. "They couldn't get it done," White said — a rare instance of a planned booking for one of the most high-profile cards in UFC history being acknowledged publicly after it fell through.

The CBS simulcast is the detail that frames the event's potential reach most clearly. White expects Freedom 250 to become the most watched UFC event in history on the back of free-to-air broadcast access, and the combination of the White House setting, a lightweight title unification in the main event, and Alex Pereira's heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane in the co-main gives the card the kind of lineup that can justify that expectation.

UFC Freedom 250 takes place June 14 at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington D.C.