On To the Next One | What's Next For Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira After UFC White House

**Mike Heck** (0:01)
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On To The Next One on a rare Monday, following a pretty epic UFC White House event, which was capped off by one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, certainly one of the greatest moments in a title fight in UFC history. No one gave Justin Gaethje much of a chance to win this fight. Some people will say, Oh, I said he could win. But like realistically looking at it on paper, not a lot of people are giving Justin a chance. And Justin went out there and just did what Justin Gaethje does and beat them. Holy hell, Ilia Topuria got the stoppage after round four. And would you know it, Justin Gaethje, happy ending on the White House lawn for the American fans. But thank you for joining us. I am Mike Heck and joining me to match make all things UFC White House because he's my best friend after all, the one and only Alexander K. Lee, aka how we doing, how we feeling? It is Monday after quite the card. You're muted.

**Alexander K. Lee** (1:32)
My best friend, we're feeling good. It is, what a weekend. Justin Gaethje is a UFC champion. The New York Knicks are champion? This is not something I foresaw at the beginning of 2026 Let me put it that way.
But it has to be said. I think as a community, we're feeling a little bit better about one than the other.
But yeah, UFC White House, it was a reality. It happened. I mean, a year ago, listen, I didn't think they'd be able to put it together. I thought it was a cool idea. I thought they would end up having it at just a more traditional venue in Washington DC somewhere. I did not think they would actually build a gigantic claw on the White House lawn that would then shield the fighters from the elements and present quite a spectacle. I did not think they would have fighters walking out of the Oval Office down to the octagon. Did not think that was the thing. I said, this is all a cool idea. Cool idea. Very fun to talk about. Let's get some good memes out of this. It's not going to happen. Mike, it happened. It all happened and then some. Then we got one of the best moments of 2026 at the end of the night. Wow.

**Mike Heck** (2:35)
Yeah, it was damn good, man. I understand the ones who didn't like it are not into it for different reasons other than like fisticuffs and that's totally fine. It's fair if that's how you feel.
But just viewing it through the lens of an MMA fan and someone who's watched the sport evolve and get to where it is.
It felt good, AK. It felt good watching it just from that viewpoint, because all we ask AK is one simple thing from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It's not a hard thing to ask. It's not like we're asking for, you know, this and this. All we're asking for is just try a little. And when they try, and the reason we ask for it is because when they try, like this is what we get. Like we get good stuff. They are capable of all of this. So when people say like, oh, you guys are so negative, you hate the UFC. No, we just know what they're capable of. They are capable of what they did last night. They're capable of what they did at UFC 300 They're capable of what they did at the Spear. Like they are capable of doing this every week with in terms of effort in making people care. Like they can do this anytime they want to. So that's why we get a little hard on them because we know it's there. We know it's there. So last night was very enjoyable.
The rain delay kind of threw some people off, but like once the fight started rolling and the fighter started walking, we got to see a little bit of it. This went over way better than I thought it was going to go. I thought the pacing was going to be atrocious. It wasn't the best, but it was way better than I thought it was going to be. Even the History of America packages were not as long as I thought they'd be. They moved it pretty good last night. I have no complaints, honestly, outside of a couple of dumb things being said on a live microphone. That is my only complaint. That's a pretty damn good night. This is one of those events that we'll be talking about for a long time.