WASHINGTON — All 14 fighters who competed in Sunday’s mixed martial arts card on the White House South Lawn have been declared winners of their bouts, according to supporters of the President and officials involved in the event, who said Tuesday that the result reflected “the standard of the address.”
The card, billed as UFC Freedom 250, was held on June 14, the President’s birthday, which is also Flag Day. It featured seven bouts in an octagon set beneath a 92-foot arch, and fighters walked out to the cage from the Oval Office. Every fight ended before the final bell, by knockout or technical knockout, which observers described as the first time a card of its kind had ended that way from top to bottom. Before the event, the promotion’s chief executive estimated that restoring the South Lawn afterward would cost about $700,000.
“Seven fights, seven finishes, 14 champions,” said Darrell Vos, acting White House director of winning, a position created Sunday at 7:58 p.m. “In this house, nobody loses. That’s not a policy. That’s just what the house does.”
According to a two-page determination issued Monday, the seven fighters whose bouts were stopped have been retroactively credited with victories in “the second half of the fight, which took place lying down,” and each has been issued a championship belt identical to the one awarded to the fighter who was standing. Referees have been reassigned as applause officials. The official scorecards, which list both fighters in each bout as the winner, have been signed by the judges, by Vos, and by the octagon, which officials said had “seen everything and agreed.” The determination also credits the President’s birthday cake, which was not entered in any bout, with a unanimous decision.
Wendell Karsh, executive director of the advocacy group Americans for an Obvious Prize, said the result was overdue. “People have been asking for decades why there has to be a loser in every fight. Nobody had an answer. He had an answer, and it was the lawn,” Karsh said. “You hold a fight on that lawn, everybody wins. You hold it on a regular lawn, you get regular results.”
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said the Center had reviewed the card and calculated a win rate of 200 percent. “In combat sports, the historical win rate is 50 percent, because of how fights work,” Teller said. “On Sunday, it was 200 percent. We cannot explain this without further study, and we have applied for the funding.”
The Continental Office of Lawn Management, which is overseeing the replacement of the damaged grass, said it had determined that the original South Lawn “also won” and would receive a belt. A spokesperson for the office said the first rolls of replacement sod were delivered Tuesday morning and arrived already undefeated.