Mitchell submits Luna in final seconds, then volunteers for UFC White House card

Bryce Mitchell delivered one of the night’s most dramatic finishes at UFC Vegas 118 on Saturday, submitting Santiago Luna in the closing seconds of their bantamweight bout — then immediately made himself available for next Sunday’s UFC White House card in Washington, D.C.

Speaking in the post-fight scrum, Mitchell said he would step in should either Sean O’Malley or Aiemann Zahabi be unable to compete. “Hey, if somebody gets hurt and they need me, I’m going to put some Icy Hot on my back and I’ll fight,” Mitchell said. “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Asked to predict the O’Malley vs. Zahabi matchup, Mitchell did not hesitate. “I’m going to pick the American. I’m going to pick O’Malley, he’s American, and I love Tim Welch and I love O’Malley.”

Mitchell’s willingness to appear on the card sits alongside publicly stated reservations about the event itself. At Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 118 media day, he questioned whether hosting a sporting event at the White House was an appropriate use of government resources. “Our government is to protect and serve the people, and really should be as minimal as possible,” he said, in comments first reported by HuffPost. “When you’re doing all of this stuff, hosting sporting events, it’s really outside of what the goal of the government was intended to be, because our tax dollars and resources are funding this operation.”

The Arkansas fighter was careful to separate his political view from any criticism of the UFC itself. “I am happy to be part of the UFC. I am grateful to be here, but I have a voice, too, and I can have my opinions while still respecting everybody,” he said.

Mitchell acknowledged that the remarks had been better received than he anticipated. “It’s really nice to see people understand what I’m saying, that I’m not being malicious,” he added.

The comments arrive against a complicated backdrop for Mitchell. He was previously admonished by UFC CEO Dana White — though not formally sanctioned — after making remarks on a podcast in which he defended Adolf Hitler and shared Holocaust denial theories.

Having pushed Luna to the final seconds before securing the finish, Mitchell said he remains cautiously optimistic about building on the result as he looks toward his next assignment in the bantamweight division.