A UFC Hall of Famer sees a better option than Conor McGregor to top the potential event at the White House that Donald Trump announced for 2026.
While speaking at a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds last Thursday, Trump announced a UFC fight to take place on the White House lawn as part of next year’s July 4 celebrations.
“We’re gonna have a UFC fight,” Trump said. “Think of this on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there. We’re gonna build a little, we’re not, Dana’s gonna do it.
“Dana is great. One of a kind. Gonna have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like, 25,000 people.
“We’re gonna do that as part of 250 also,” Trump added. “We’re gonna have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events, but the UFC fight’s gonna be a big deal.”
McGregor wants to headline at the White House, having previously appeared to be done with fighting until the prospect of competing at the national celebration arose.
But when it comes to celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, one UFC Hall of Famer sees a better fit than the former two-division champion.
Michael Bisping chooses Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall over Conor McGregor
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping reacted to news of the planned White House event.
After outlining his own desire to be present, likely serving in a commentary or analysis role, ‘The Count’ looked ahead to the potential fights that could go down.
While the Brit acknowledged McGregor’s interest, he instead suggested the long-awaited heavyweight clash between America’s Jon Jones and England’s Tom Aspinall would be more apt.
“Donald Trump announced a massive event; the UFC is coming to the White House,” Bisping said. “Some fighters have already been putting their hand up and volunteering their services.
“Conor McGregor put his hand up, Michael Chandler said, ‘Let’s do this.’ There’s a lot of people. So let’s start with it, main event at the White House…who would this be?
“Well, we know Jon Jones is one of Donald Trump’s favorite fighters,” Bisping continued. “Can you imagine Ciryl Gane gets beaten by Tom (Aspinall), but he makes him work for it…that’s gonna have Jon Jones thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, I can beat this guy.’
“If there’s one fight and one location that Jon Jones would come out of retirement for, we might just get to see the greatest heavyweight fight of all time…that would be the main event at the White House. England vs. USA all over again! 1776, eat your heart out.”
Jon Jones teases return from retirement after Donald Trump’s announcement
Like McGregor and many other UFC fighters, it didn’t take long for Jones to react to Trump’s claim of Octagon action outside the White House.
The recently retired GOAT contender appeared on X to seemingly throw his name in the hat.
“Fighting at the White House? (eyes emoji)”
He doubled down in a follow-up post, claiming to have taken action to reverse his controversial decision to call it quits in June.
“Just re-entered the testing pool, that lasted for about two weeks. Figured we’d keep everyone’s options open.”