UFC President Dana White and former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic have seemingly not been on the greatest of terms. Now White has come forward with a statement on the matter.
The UFC received hefty criticism from media, fighters and fight fans alike for allegedly favoring Francis Ngannou over Stipe Miocic concerning their promotion ahead of Ngannou’s title challenge against Miocic. After Miocic won the fight, the Cleveland native refused to let Dana White place the belt around his waist.
Speaking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Dana White revealed his thoughts on the matter.
“I don’t know why – Stipe always feels like we’re disrespecting him, which we’re not. We have a lot of respect for Stipe and I think he feels like it took him a very long time to get his title shot and he felt it took him longer than it should have. Then once he got it – every time I turn around he feels disrespected. He’s anything but disrespected. The complete opposite.”
“You saw that we set up the fight with Cormier to fight Brock. That would have been Stipe if Stipe won the fight. No disrespect to Stipe. It was just something that was in place before that fight even happened.”
