What happened at Trump's UFC birthday bash on the South Lawn?

President Donald Trump turned 80 on Sunday with an evening that combined blood sport, geopolitics and pageantry on a scale no American president has attempted before staging a full Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) card on the White House's South Lawn while announcing an initial agreement to end the US war with Iran.

Before the fight even started, Trump announced that the deal to settle things “is now complete” and promised that the US would end its blockade on Iran, with the Strait of Hormuz reopening.

Iran’s official press agency had just the day before denied such claims, and high-ranking members of the administration admitted that many important details were yet to be hammered out.

The spectacle itself was unlike anything for the White House, with thousands attending a makeshift arena underneath a spacecraft-like metal structure known as “The Claw".

The lightweight headliner, UFC fighters Ilia Topuria, and Justin Gaethje, who had wrapped up in the American flag, left the Oval Office to proceed to the Octagon, thereby leaving the Oval Office as part of the spectacle.

Gaethje beat Topuria in four bruising rounds. Trump then entered into the ring to shake hands before the launch of fireworks at one in the morning. 

Attendees at the fights included Marco Rubio, the secretary of state; Mike Johnson of the House of Representatives; and Karol Nawrocki, the president of Poland. Trump also engaged in conversation with Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg at the fights.

The UFC said it is paying for the event, but a National Park Service court filing revealed the staging involved more than $60 million and tens of thousands of labour hours across seven government agencies.

In addition to this, the event was associated with another cryptocurrency company called World Liberty Financial, co-owned by members of the Trump family, which provided a prize money pool of $250,000 for winning fighters.

The UFC Middleweight Champion, Sean Strickland, was removed from the Ellipse by police forces prior to the fight. In one fight, the heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit made a false allegation against Michelle Obama, the former first lady.