Jack Osbourne is addressing online backlash over his decision to attend the controversial UFC fight on the White House.
“Alright, I would like to deal with me going to the White House to the UFC fight. Initially, among 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 the way they felt about his decision to attend the Sunday, June 14, event, during which UFC heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit called former first lady Michelle Obama “a person” during his postfight interview with Joe Rogan and after defeating Derrick Lewis.
“So upset,” one person wrote of Jack’s decision to attend the event, while one other post read, “Who would need to go… baffling… embarrassing.”
“That is kinda devastating not gonna lie,” one other fan wrote.
“Your birth country can be upset to say the least,” one other commented.
“I like to recommend you hearken to ‘War Pigs’ yet another 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 sort of foreign affairs issue. Nothing. I literally went to the White House to go see UFC. I actually have been into combat sports my entire life. I began doing Taekwondo at 6. I used to go to Thailand yearly in my late teens, early 20s to do Muay Thai. I actually have fought Muay Thai fights professionally.”
Jack continued, “In my 30s, I began doing Ju Jitsu. I actually have also attended UFC and Pride fights going back to the early 2000s. It’s something that has been an element of my life since I can remember. So once I got invited by Dana White to attend the fight on the White House, after all I’d go. Any person on the market who would get an invitation would have gone, I’m sorry. There is no such thing as a one I could consider that will have been like, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going because I don’t approve of Orange Man.’ Or regardless of the f***. That’s ridiculous. It was not a political event, or in my eyes it was not. It was a f***ing fight on the White House. Who gives a s***?”
Jack went on to say that through the event he even asked his wife, Aree Gearhart, why the White House — also referred to as The People’s House — doesn’t play host to more sporting events frequently.
“Actually, politicians back within the day used to try this, so just food for thought,” Jack continued, before adding individuals who evoked his father directly.
“So far as the people bringing my father into this, saying, ‘Oh, Ozzy wouldn’t approve. He’s 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 probably did not know my father. You probably 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 top of the day, my dad still attended the Correspondents’ Dinner back within 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, during which the legendary rocker stood on a table and gave the peace sign after president Bush introduced him to the gang.
“Moreover, 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 mainly,” Jack added. “To bring my father into this, to say he would or wouldn’t approve, is totally insane.”
He concluded, “I simply attended a sporting event for a sport that I actually have an important amount of respect for and something that has been an element of my life since I can remember, so take care of it and I’m sorry you weren’t invited.”