UFC Fighting Cage Rises at WH 05/27 06:09

   Crews are erecting an octagon-shaped cage on the South Lawn that will host 
next month's UFC bout, helping mark the nation's 250th anniversary -- and 
President Donald Trump 's 80th birthday.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yet another White House construction project is underway, 
though this one is meant to be only temporary.

   Crews are erecting an octagon-shaped cage on the South Lawn that will host 
next month's UFC bout, helping mark the nation's 250th anniversary -- and 
President Donald Trump 's 80th birthday.

   Online renderings depict what the completed, wire-mesh-fence-ringed fight 
space is expected to look like ahead of the June 14 event. It will be ringed by 
a red, white and blue stage under a towering arch featuring stars and stripes 
patterns and two large screens carrying the action live.

   The cage and stage will themselves be surrounded by thousands of temporary 
seats, including ringside space for a full marching band that can set the 
entire scene to blaring music.

   The project is part of a series of events celebrating the semiquincentennial 
of the Declaration of Independence's signing on July 4, 1776. Other planned 
functions include an IndyCar race that will pass by the White House and the 
Great American State Fair taking place on the National Mall.

   Trump has said that the finished UFC project will feature "a 5,000-seat 
arena right outside the front door of the White House." Additional large 
screens broadcasting the fights will be set up in a park at the nearby Ellipse, 
and the UFC has said it plans to issue as many as 85,000 free tickets to 
accommodate spectators at both locations.

   "I have never seen anybody want anything so much as people want those 
tickets," Trump said recently of demand to attend the UFC fight, adding, 
"That's gonna be something."

   The card has been panned by fans online as underwhelming, featuring just two 
championship fights. Brazil's Alex Pereira will meet France's Ciryl Gane for 
the interim UFC heavyweight title. Then Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion 
Ilia Topuria takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje, one of just two Americans 
who currently hold even a share of the UFC's 11 championship belts.

   The octagon and surrounding structures are the latest project in the White 
House building boom Trump is leading.

   The president's other efforts to leave his mark include tearing up part of 
the Rose Garden to make room for a patio space reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago 
estate in Florida, affixing partisan plaques to the wall of the colonnade for a 
Presidential Walk of Fame, redoing the bathroom attached to the Lincoln Bedroom 
and renovating the Palm Room, placing new flag poles on the north and south 
lawns and demolishing the entire East Wing for a sprawling ballroom.

   The president also wants to repaint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building 
beside the White House and build a 250-foot arch at the nearby Lincoln Memorial 
-- the same monument where weigh-ins for the upcoming UFC fight are scheduled 
to take place, bout organizers say.