New Delhi, June 14 -- WASHINGTON - The Octagon went up on the South Lawn before most of Washington had fully processed what it meant. By the time the 92-foot steel arch known as "The Claw" was shadowing the Rose Garden on June 11, it was already too late to treat UFC Freedom 250 as merely a birthday party for a president who likes fighting. The sponsors made that clear.

Stitched along the padded bars of the cage, in the most scrutinized real estate in American sport, was the logo of Polymarket - the cryptocurrency prediction platform whose future depends almost entirely on a federal regulatory decision the Trump administration is now shepherding through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. One sponsor. One cage. One unmistakable arg...