Steve Garcia warns of heat concerns for UFC White House fight

Steve Garcia has fought outdoors twice before and knows exactly what can go wrong when the cage is exposed to the elements.

Garcia opens the UFC White House card against Diego Lopes on June 14 in a featherweight bout on the South Lawn, and his biggest worry is not insects or lighting but heat. Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Garcia recalled his professional debut in 2013 at the State Fair grounds in Albuquerque, where temperatures reached around 85 degrees and the canvas became unbearably hot. "They had to continue to throw ice on the canvas," Garcia said, per Sherdog. "It got so hot that everybody was burning their feet. They were dumping tubs of ice all over the canvas, and then they had to sweep it up so nobody would slip and fall."

What Garcia learned from two outdoor fights

Garcia's first outdoor bout came during his amateur days at night, where bugs swarmed the cage and lighting had to be repositioned toward the Octagon, leaving fighters without proper illumination in the warm-up area. That experience was manageable. The second outdoor event was a different story. Garcia said fighters on their backs in guard could feel the canvas burning through their skin. "If you were on your back in guard or something, you were burning your back," he told Helwani. "That's definitely not a fun way to fight."

Garcia is now watching how well the UFC covers the Octagon for the White House event. Dana White and others have flagged insects as a potential issue, but Garcia's experience suggests heat management could be the bigger problem if the South Lawn gets direct sun. Garcia holds a 19-5 record heading into the fight, while Lopes stands at 27-8.

The UFC White House card takes place June 14 with the cage set up outdoors for the first time in promotional history.

Original reporting:

• sherdog.com — Steve Garcia lists concerns about fighting outdoors from experience