Ranking the fights: Who will steal the UFC show at...

In the main event, Ilia Topuria, ESPN's No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound fighter, will put the lightweight title on the line against Justin Gaethje, who beat Patty Pimblett by unanimous decision to earn an interim title and a shot at Topuria. "El Matador" enters the fight with an unbeaten 17-0 record and has knocked out each of the UFC all-timers he has faced in his past three outings (Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, respectively).

Despite Topuria's impressive run and the title stakes in his matchup against Gaethje, their fight may not be the most anticipated bout on the card. Here is ESPN's rankings of the seven UFC Freedom 250 fights, as voted on by a panel of experts including Carlos Contreras Legaspi, Andrew Davis, Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim. The ranking is based on style matchups, pedigree, stakes, potential storylines, prefight hype and potential for jaw-dropping moments.

The job of the fighters filling the first slot on the first-ever fight card at the White House is very simple: Start this thing off with a bang. Set the tone for the rest of the night. Lopes and Garcia were chosen for this exact spot because of how they fight. There are a lot of divisional implications to this matchup as well, and we can talk about those later. For now, all you need to know is this fight was built to be a fireworks show. -- Okamoto