ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton will go on the injured list with a low-grade strain of his right calf.
Stanton exited Friday's series opener at Houston after experiencing calf stiffness while running the bases and missed the following three games, including Monday's series-opening 4-2 win over Texas.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed the results of an MRI after the game.
“It doesn’t look too serious, but enough to not want to wait a couple of more days,” Boone said.
Asked if Stanton could return as soon as he's eligible to come off the 10-day IL, Boone said that's possible, but he didn't want to put a timetable on it.
The Yankees recalled outfielder Jasson Domínguez from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before Monday's game, and the switch-hitter went 1 for 4 with a strikeout as the designated hitter in his big league debut this season.
They had an open spot on their 26-man roster after right-hander Luis Gil dropped to 1-2 with a 6.05 ERA in four starts and was optioned to Triple-A after Sunday's loss to the Astros.
Stanton, a five-time All-Star, is hitting .256 this season with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games.
He has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t played a full season since 2018, his first with the Yankees. He has been out of the lineup due to injuries to his elbows (2025), left hamstring (2020, 2023 and 2024), left quadriceps (2021), and right ankle and left Achilles (2022).
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New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) runs to home base after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, left, beats the throw to Boston Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin (5) while advancing on a double by Giancarlo Stanton during the first inning during of a baseball game at Fenway Park, Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump marked his 80th birthday on Sunday by hailing an initial agreement to end the war in Iran and staging a once unfathomable cage-fighting show on the White House's storied South Lawn.
Trump had been touting the emerging deal for weeks and the continuing conflict threatened to overshadow the UFC mixed martial arts extravaganza, where combatants inside a wire-mesh octagon tried to punch, kick, chop and pummel each other into submission.
Ahead of the fight starting, however, the president said an agreement to end the conflict “is now complete." He declared that the U.S. will end its blockade of Iran, and that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen. That could potentially ease high oil prices — but crucial details still need negotiating over the coming weeks.
Top administration officials and Republican leaders attended the fights, including FBI Director Kash Patel and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Polish President Karol Nawrocki was also spotted at the White House.
Trump and UFC chief Dana White walked together from the Oval Office to the Blue Room Balcony to survey the Octagon, standing for the national anthem as fighter jets thundered overhead.
More than 4,000 spectators were invited to a temporary arena under “ The Claw,” a spaceship-like metal arch fitted with lighting, sound equipment and large screens. Thousands more watched on big screens from the nearby Ellipse.
“This event is a one of one event, incredible event,” said White, a close friend of the president's, during a Friday night hype session at the Lincoln Memorial, where pairs of fighters shoved and scuffled for the cameras under the stoic gaze of Honest Abe’s marble likeness.
During a break in Sunday's action, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approached Trump and spoke with him for several minutes.
First lady Melania Trump was also there. As Diego Lopes was defeating American Steve Garcia in the opening fight, the president could be seen speaking to the first lady while watching the knockout. After Bo Nickal knocked out Kyle Daukaus in the second fight, Nickal went over to Trump and kneeled down, chatting briefly.
“I gotta thank President Trump for making this happen,” Nickal told White in a subsequent interview, as Trump grinned nearby. Nickal added that the president is a “special person,” before Trump-favorite “YMCA" played.
The president sought to tie Sunday’s event to larger, monthslong celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But it was so geared toward himself that the G7 summit for leaders of industrialized nations pushed back their get-together so that the president could attend his cage-match party and then fly to Europe for the meetings.
The weekend wasn't all smiles for Trump, though. Crews pried Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center about a mile from Trump’s birthday bash after a judge ruled naming it after the president had gone too far.
And, before the fight began, UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland — an outspoken critic of Israel — was escorted out of the Ellipse by a crowd of law enforcement officers.
It could have been worse. Despite forecasts predicting strong chances of thunderstorms that delayed the event briefly, rain wasn't an issue.
The crowd repeatedly chanted, “USA! USA!” when an American fighter faced a foreign opponent. But that often didn’t help the American fighter prevail. After winning his fight, Brazil's Mauricio Ruffy proposed to his girlfriend who — in Trumpian fashion — flashed a thumb's up from the crowd.
It was all a very long way from when Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, turned 80 in November 2022. Biden celebrated with a private family brunch at the White House, laying bare just how much and how quickly things have changed.
Asked about the contrast, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster called the UFC event “one of the most entertaining nights in American history.”
“Having this spectacle take place at the people’s house on Flag Day during our nations’ semiquincentennial anniversary is a fitting tribute,” Schuster said in a statement.
When he turned 80, Biden was the oldest president in U.S. history, and was months away from launching a reelection bid that he would ultimately abandon after a disastrous debate against Trump and mutiny among Democrats concerned he was too old to handle a second term.
Trump has now supplanted Biden as the oldest person to be elected U.S. president. He’s constitutionally barred from running again, yet constantly toys with the notion publicly. That’s despite polls showing rising public skepticism about Trump’s mental and physical health — recalling concerns Biden faced as he turned 80.
A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.
The White House countered with a lengthy statement from Trump's former White House physician, Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, saying Trump's “stamina, focus, and strength are exceptional and on display every day. Claims to the contrary are pure fiction.” Jackson added that polling concerns were “being propagated by the same biased, liberal, Trump-hating press that completely ignored the absolute cognitive and physical disaster that was President Biden.”
The UFC is an apt metaphor for Trump's pugilistic political style. He is as big a fan of cage-match-style politics as he is of cage-fighting itself.
But Trump has also long been a master of political misdirection, purposely presenting people with something other than his presidency to focus on when things aren’t going well.
With the war in Iran having kept gas prices high and renewing concerns about inflation while Trump's job approval ratings fall, a White House birthday party unlike anything America has ever seen can certainly qualify as a diversion.
“This is all distraction,” said Mike Fontaine, a classics professor at Cornell University, who likened it to the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, when combatants brutalized each other for public entertainment meant to bolster rulers’ popularity and quell potential unrest.
“This is a classic strategy," Fontaine said. “In ancient Rome, the phrase would be, ‘bread and circuses.’”
Trump says the UFC is paying for the event and while its full costs haven't been divulged, the National Park Service said in a court filing that $60-plus million and tens of thousands of hours of labor went into it, while seven government agencies have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”
UFC also announced that it was adding as an official partner for the event World Liberty Financial to create a special $250,000 athlete bonus pool for Sunday night’s winners. The cryptocurrency company is co-owned by the Trump family, founded with the president’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son, Zach.
The arrangement further blurs lines between the Trump family's financial interests and the events and construction projects the president has prioritized and used government resources to pull off.
Still, Fontaine said that when it comes to a personal flair for pageantry, the president’s second-term tendency to lean into “hardcore masculinity and brute fighting” is marrying the UFC's blood sport with Trump's trademark humor and enduring sense of showmanship.
“President Trump has a once-in-a-generation talent for this stuff,” he said.
Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Bo Nickal, top, fights against Kyle Daukaus during their middleweight bout at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Diego Lopes celebrates during a featherweight bout against Steve Garcia during UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The arena is seen on the South Lawn of the White House from the Washington Monument ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
President Donald Trump and Dana White, UFC president and CEO, arrive for UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Light shine at the UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
People are seen on the roof of the White House prior to the UFC Freedom 250 fights taking place on the South Lawn in Washington, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Army soldiers hold a grappling demonstration during the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest on The Ellipse ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool Photo via AP)
The arena is seen on the South Lawn of the White House from the Washington Monument ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
Diego Lopes participates in the ceremonial UFC Freedom 250 weigh-ins on the Ellipse, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington, ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump is pictured during an event where he signs a proclamation about the fishing industry, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Security at the White House looks through a pair of binoculars during the UFC Fan Fest on the White House Ellipse ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
UFC fighter Alex Pereira attends a UFC news conference at the Lincoln Memorial, ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Kai Trump, left, and UFC President and CEO Dana White looks on before a Motorsports athlete and stunt performer does a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
Motorsports athletes and stunt performers do a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
A motor sports athlete and stunt performer does a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House is photographed Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
