"I was there, 4,000-seat arena [for the UFC].I gotta be honest, coming off the NBA Finals where I was at multiple NBA Finals games, better event than the NBA Finals," Williams told Stephen A.
Smith on ESPN Monday."It was a better event than the NBA Finals.
With the White House literally being right there, incredible."President Donald J.Trump and his family posed for a photo in the Octagon after the UFC lightweight championship fight.
(Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)In a post Sunday evening, Smith said the UFC show "look[ed] spectacular" and praised UFC President Dana White.Credit is due to both Smith and Williams, one of ESPN's top analysts, for discussing the event honestly.Much of the sports media would not dare say a positive word about the show, considering President Donald Trump promoted it as part of the nation's 250th anniversary celebration.Presumably, there was too much patriotism and too many White people in attendance for some members of the sports media.
Former ESPN host Jemele Hill even compared the event to a Klan rally."This UFC 250 event has the feel of a Klan rally," Hill wrote on Threads."Just utterly disgraceful and disgusting."Is that so?JEMELE HILL CLAIMS SHE'D HAVE A JOB SHE'S 'UNQUALIFIED FOR' AND A HIGHER SALARY IF SHE WERE WHITEESPN College GameDay host Jay Williams smiles during the broadcast ahead of the game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., on Feb.
1, 2025.(Lance King/Getty Images)Of course, had the NBA staged a similar event at the White House during Barack Obama's presidency, much of the sports media would have celebrated it.Williams and Smith deserve credit for taking politics out of the equation.
And they're right.The scene was special.
There has never been anything quite like it.According to Dana White, there will never be anything like it again."It was an amazing experience; this was a one-of-one," White told reporters after the event.
"It will never happen agai...