Butterfly Guards: UFC White House and the antinomies of women’s sporting violence

On July 3rd, 2025, Donald Trump announced that a UFC Event would be held on the South Lawn of the White House as part of celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the USA. The announcement came after multiple key appearances of Donald Trump at UFC Events and the inclusion of key UFC personnel in major Republican moments, such as Dana White’s appearance and speaking on election night 2024. Using current research into the enactment of ritualized violence within sport from within religion and sport studies, this paper will explore the UFC as a site of sportswashing. However, by focusing on the growing participation of women in sport categorised ‘violent’, and specifically women UFC fighters, it will show how women fighters use evangelical-nationalistic sportswashing to buffer against the ongoing project or normalising gender and sexuality that places their identity under threat at the hands of both the state.