Jack Osbourne is addressing online backlash over his decision to attend the controversial UFC fight at the White House.
“Alright, I want to address me going to the White House to the UFC fight. First of all, some of the comments I’ve been getting are completely insane,” Osbourne, 40, addressed the camera in a video shared via his YouTube page on Thursday, June 18. “Like, what the f***? I went to a sporting event. That’s it.”
Osbourne then showed various screenshots of fans and social media users letting them know how they felt about his decision to attend the Sunday, June 14, event, in which UFC heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit called former first lady Michelle Obama “a man” during his postfight interview with Joe Rogan and after defeating Derrick Lewis.
“So disappointed,” one person wrote of Jack’s decision to attend the event, while another post read, “Who would want to go… baffling… embarrassing.”
“This is kinda devastating not gonna lie,” another fan wrote.
“Your birth country would be disappointed to say the least,” another commented.
“I recommend you listen to ‘War Pigs’ one more time,” one user wrote, referencing Jack’s late father, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, and Black Sabbath’s 1970 anti-war ballad.
In his Thursday video, Osbourne argued that he didn’t attend the unprecedented sporting match as a political operative or potential politician — despite its obvious political location — but as a fan of the combat sport.
“I didn’t go and throw my hat into the ring for political office,” he said. “I wasn’t there going to endorse a politician or some kind of foreign affairs issue. Nothing. I literally went to the White House to go see UFC. I have been into combat sports my entire life. I started doing Taekwondo at 6. I used to go to Thailand every year in my late teens, early 20s to do Muay Thai. I have fought Muay Thai fights professionally.”
Jack continued, “In my 30s, I started doing Ju Jitsu. I have also attended UFC and Pride fights going back to the early 2000s. It is something that has been a part of my life since I can remember. So when I got invited by Dana White to attend the fight at the White House, of course I would go. Any person out there who would get an invite would have gone, I’m sorry. There is no one I could think of that would have been like, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going because I don’t approve of Orange Man.’ Or whatever the f***. That’s ridiculous. It was not a political event, or in my eyes it was not. It was a f***ing fight at the White House. Who gives a s***?”
Jack went on to claim that during the event he even asked his wife, Aree Gearhart, why the White House — also known as The People’s House — doesn’t play host to more sporting events on a regular basis.
“In fact, politicians back in the day used to do that, so just food for thought,” Jack continued, before adding people who evoked his father directly.
“As far as the people bringing my father into this, saying, ‘Oh, Ozzy would not approve. He is rolling over in his grave.’ Shut the f*** up,” Jack said. (Ozzy died on July 22, 2025, of a heart attack following a public battle with Parkinson’s. He was 76.)
“You did not know my father. You did not know where he stood with things,” Jack continued. “Yes, he wrote a song called ‘War Pigs.’ Anti-war song. He wasn’t anti-UFC. He wasn’t anti-going-to-an-event-at-the-White-House. He’s anti-war. Sure, fair enough. But, at the end of the day, my dad still attended the Correspondents’ Dinner back in the day when Bush was president. George Bush gave him a shoutout.”
Jack then played video of his father attending the 2002 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which the legendary rocker stood on a table and gave the peace sign after president Bush introduced him to the crowd.
“Additionally, my dad did USO tours, he went to Korea to see the troops. He attended events at Walter Reed Hospital to see the wounded soldiers and Marines and Air Force pilots, so shut the f*** up basically,” Jack added. “To bring my father into this, to say he would or wouldn’t approve, is completely insane.”
He concluded, “I simply attended a sporting event for a sport that I have a great amount of respect for and something that has been a part of my life since I can remember, so deal with it and I’m sorry you weren’t invited.”
