Fighters recall outdoor MMA event in rain ahead of UFC White House

The UFC White House card on June 14 will mark the promotion's first outdoor event in the United States, and fighters scheduled to compete on the South Lawn may face more than just their opponents if weather turns ugly.

Justin Gaethje and Diego Lopes, who challenge Ilia Topuria and Steve Garcia respectively, have both fought outdoors before — but neither dealt with rain, lightning, or bugs in those appearances. Brazil's Jungle Fight promotion, however, learned those lessons the hard way in 2010 when it moved an event from a local gymnasium to a beach in Vila Velha at the last minute.

When a Brazilian MMA show got soaked on the beach

Jungle Fight 17 was originally scheduled for an indoor arena in February 2010, but promoter Wallid Ismail opted to relocate the cage to the sand after the weigh-ins, reportedly under intense pressure from local politicians who wanted the spectacle on national television. According to veteran MMA reporter Marcelo Alonso, who covered the event, weather sites showed a 60 percent chance of rain that night. "Magno Malta putting a lot of pressure on everyone because the event was sponsored by the city or the state government, and having it on the beach would be great publicity for them," Alonso told MMA Fighting. "Wallid knew the risk, especially with the event being broadcast live on TV, but the pressure was intense."

Fighters balked. Edson Franca, one of the headliners, said he and Erick Silva rallied the locker room after some competitors threatened to pull out. Silva recalled Ismail addressing the group as rain began falling: "'We're doing this. Let's go out there and see what happens.'" Future UFC veterans Renan Barao, Rodrigo Damm, and Marcelo Guimaraes all fought on the card. Alonso described the scene once the storm rolled in: "A massive storm hit. I had a telephoto lens and managed to position myself farther back, but the TV cameramen got completely soaked."

The canvas turned treacherous. Franca fought Geronimo dos Santos in the main event and said the slick surface wrecked his grappling plan. "It was extremely slippery, and it really hurt my jiu-jitsu game," he said, per the report. "I would take him down, but he'd slide away and get back to his feet." The bout ended in round two when dos Santos slipped into a puddle during a scramble and tapped out, with the referee scoring it a TKO by retirement. Damm, who also won that night alongside his sister Carina, downplayed the conditions afterward, noting the canvas was "a little slippery" but equally bad for both competitors.

Washington's forecast for Sunday shows a high chance of rain, though UFC executive producer Craig Borsari has built a covered structure on the lawn to shelter the octagon if needed. Whether that keeps Gaethje and Lopes from slipping remains to be seen when the cage door closes.

Original reporting:

• mmafighting.com — ‘A massive storm hit’: As UFC White House approaches, fighters recall ‘tense’ outdoor MMA event in the rain | MMA Fighting