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UFC Octagon Girls Get A Patriotic Makeover For White House Cage Fight

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The White House
Photo Credit: "White House" by Diego Cambiaso is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

The UFC’s Octagon Girls are getting a star-spangled makeover before the cage match on the White House lawn in honor of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

For UFC Freedom 250, the promotion’s longtime round-card models are trading their usual fight-night look for red, white and blue outfits built for one of the strangest spectacles in combat sports history.

Red Dela Cruz and Chrissy Blair modeled the new uniforms ahead of the Sunday, June 14 card, with Maxim debuting the looks before the White House event.

The designs lean into American pageantry, with a superhero-style polish that would not look out of place in Wonder Woman’s closet.

Costume designer Marina Toybina said the challenge was making the outfits feel big enough for both the UFC brand and the 250th anniversary setting.

“The inspiration was born from the intersection of sport, spectacle, and celebration,” Toybina told Maxim.

“Working closely with UFC, we wanted to create looks that honored both the energy of the brand and the significance of the 250th anniversary celebration,” she added.

“The goal was to blend strength, athleticism, glamour and American heritage into a wardrobe language that felt sophisticated, powerful, and unmistakably iconic.”

Toybina said the red, white and blue wardrobe uses sharp silhouettes, embroidery, crystals and patriotic details to create a fresh version of American glamour.

“From streamlined silhouettes to dramatic statement pieces, each look played a role in an evolving red, white and blue narrative,” the designer explained.

“Rich textiles, custom embroidery, crystal embellishment and patriotic motifs brought texture, movement and a fresh interpretation of American glamour.”

The fashion reveal is only one piece of a fight card expected to include Ilia Topuria against Justin Gaethje in a lightweight title headliner.

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The White House event is also expected to feature Alex Pereira against Ciryl Gane, Sean O’Malley against Aiemann Zahabi and Josh Hokit facing Derrick Lewis.

Behind the scenes, the government’s role in the spectacle has expanded well beyond crowd control.

The FBI has teamed with UFC before the South Lawn card, sending roughly 300 federal agents through hand-to-hand combat training.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted training footage Wednesday and praised the partnership.

“Thanks to the great partnership with @ufc we’ve seen about 300 agents come through and learn amazing tactics so they can safeguard American lives,” Patel wrote on X.

The bureau’s Rapid Response team also leaned into the fight-week crossover.

“Greatest fighters in the world meet greatest cops in the world!” the account posted.

The South Lawn cage fight has become a massive logistical and financial production, with federal agencies and UFC spending at least $60 million to pull it off on President Donald Trump’s birthday.

Government filings said the money has covered construction of the octagon arena on the White House South Lawn, food delivery and as many as 900 workers who have been on site since May 20.

“In preparation, well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended. More than 4,000 spectators are expected to attend on the South Lawn, including more than 1,000 members of our armed services, and more than 120,000 visitors are expected to watch from the nearby Ellipse after winning free tickets in a lottery,” a Tuesday filing said.

The filing also noted that many attendees were traveling from outside Washington and that 14 fighters had come from around the world to compete, including in two championship bouts.

TKO, UFC’s parent company, is absorbing the cost even though executives do not expect the event itself to make money.

“We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary. This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media,” TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro commented to The Hollywood Reporter.

“We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe,” he noted.

The State Department also made its UFC connection official Thursday, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a memorandum of understanding with the mixed martial arts company.

Rubio described the deal as a sports-diplomacy push and called UFC the “United Nations of fighting.”

“We are so divided by so many different things, you know, we get our news from different places, we follow different accounts online, we do everything separate from one another in this country, and I would say increasingly around the world, we are so polarized,” Rubio said.

“There are only a handful of things that bring people together in one place at one time, united by their interest in one thing,” he continued.

“We need more of those; we need more of those forms and those settings in which we can bring people together to enjoy something together and find something in common, and if you’ve been to UFC fights, and I’ve been to many, and you look into the crowd, the crowd is as diverse as you can imagine,” Rubio remarked.

Trump has already floated the possibility that the temporary UFC setup could stick around after fight night.

Earlier this month, he compared the South Lawn structure to the Eiffel Tower, which was originally supposed to be removed after the 1889 World’s Fair.

“Many don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower — 1889 it was built — it was supposed to be taken down immediately after the World’s Fair,” Trump teased.

@realdonaldtrump

MAYBE WE’LL NEVER EVER TAKE IT DOWN

♬ original sound – President Donald J Trump

Then he suggested the White House buildout might have similar staying power.

“We’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people,” he added. “It’s gonna have the big UFC fight on June 14. And I’m looking at it, and maybe we’ll never, ever take it down.”

The event is also getting a stunt-show twist from Nitro Circus legend Travis Pastrana.

Dana White confirmed Tuesday that Pastrana will attempt a dirt-bike backflip on the South Lawn during the show. White said Pastrana pitched the stunt during a Power Slap event.

“You grabbed me at Power Slap and said, ‘I want to do a backflip on the South Lawn of the White House,'” White told Pastrana in a video call. “And I said, ‘Interesting. All right, let me see what I can do.'”

As the fight buildout continued, a massive “86 47” appeared in the grass on the National Mall east of the World War II Memorial, a message the Trump administration has interpreted as a threat against the president.

Emergency vehicles blocked off the area Thursday, according to CNN.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the outlet that “anyone who engages in or endorses political violence or assassination culture must be condemned in the harshest terms possible.”

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