UFC Freedom 250: How to watch title fights, White House lineup, odds, more

After months of buildup, the UFC will cash in its winning lottery ticket with an event at the White House.

Here’s how to watch UFC Freedom 250, where two titles are on the line in a real, actual event and not a scene from “Idiocracy.”

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Broadcast and streaming info

The entire UFC Freedom 250 card streams on Paramount+ for U.S. residents and airs on pay-per-view internationally starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Jon Anik will serve as the leading man on the mic from cageside at UFC Freedom 250. He will command play-by-play alongside color commentators and UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan. Din Thomas will serve as a coach-analyst throughout the broadcast.

The UFC Freedom 250 broadcast and post-fight show will be hosted by Brendan Fitzgerald. He’ll be joined at the desk by UFC Hall of Famers Michael Bisping, Dominick Cruz and Chris Weidman, who will serve as analysts during the event and on the post-fight show.

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UFC correspondent Megan Olivi will serve as correspondent to conduct pre and post-fight interviews backstage with some of the athletes on the UFC Freedom 250 card, as well as report additional real-time updates for the event. Heidi Androl will also appear on the broadcast with additional reports.

Main event: Ilia Topuria

• Record: 17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC

• Misc.: Topuria is back after a year away dealing with a divorce that became a high-profile one. The former featherweight champion vacated that title to move up to 155 for a shot at Oliveira and took the belt with ease a year ago for his sixth straight post-fight bonus. There was talk of him going to welterweight to fight champ Islam Makhachev, but he’ll try to unify the lightweight belts first with interim champ Gaethje.

Main event: Justin Gaethje

• Record: 27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC

• Opponent: Ilia Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC)

• Misc.: Mathematically, there’s really no other way to put it: Gaethje has 15 post-fight bonuses in 15 UFC fights, which either makes him the most exciting fighter in company history or the one who has the most blackmail material against the UFC brass. We’re guessing it’s the former. He set up his shot at Topuria with a brilliant win over Pimblett for the interim belt.

• Record: 13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC

• Opponent: Ciryl Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC)

• Key wins: Magomed Ankalaev, Khalil Rountree Jr., Jiri Prochazka (twice), Jamahal Hill, Jan Blachowicz, Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland, Bruno Silva

• Misc.: Pereira will try to make history when he steps in with the interim heavyweight belt up for grabs. A win would make him the first to win titles in three divisions in UFC history. He already has the middleweight and light heavyweight titles on his resume; he vacated the latter to move up to heavyweight to try for an unprecedented third. A win would set him up, presumably, for a shot at champ Tom Aspinall, who is out after eye surgeries caused by Gane.

Co-main event: Ciryl Gane

• Record: 13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC

• Opponent: Alex Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC)

• Key wins: Alexander Volkov (twice), Serghei Spivac, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Junior dos Santos

• Misc.: Gane won an interim title at UFC 265 nearly five years ago, but lost his unification bout against Francis Ngannou. At UFC 285 with the vacant belt on the line, he lost to Jon Jones. After wins over Spivac and Volkov, his next title shot was the now-infamous one against Tom Aspinall in which his eye pokes left the champ unable to finish — and required four eye surgeries, leading to this latest Gane shot at a belt.

UFC White House lineup

MAIN CARD (Paramount+, 8 p.m. ET)

• Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje

• Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane

• Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi

• Josh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis

• Michael Chandler vs. Mauricio Ruffy

• Kyle Daukaus vs. Bo Nickal

• Steve Garcia vs. Diego Lopes

UFC White House betting odds

• Topuria -600, Gaethje +430

• O’Malley -420, Zahabi +320

• Chandler +460, Ruffy -650

• Daukaus +300, Nickal -380

UFC Freedom 250 preview videos

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Freedom 250: How to watch title fights, White House lineup, odds, more