Some 120 years before Trump’s UFC event, a boxing match left Theodore Roosevelt partially blind

The lights of ‘the Claw’ illuminate the White House South Lawn in Washington DC on 13 June, the night before UFC Freedom 250. Photograph: Matt Kaminsky/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Donald Trump is throwing himself a huge 80th birthday party on Sunday with a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn, but he’ll be a mere spectator. About 120 years ago, another brash New Yorker turned president took a much more hands-on approach to sparring at the White House, when Theodore Roosevelt lost sight in his left eye during a 1905 boxing match there.

Roosevelt, the 26th American president, made the revelation in 1917, eight years after leaving the White House.