White: Fighting Will Not Be Here Forever
UFC president Dana White did not agree with heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s recent comments.
Miocic has gone on record stating that he would not fight without a proper training camp amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he has stated that his priority is firefighting and the safety of everyone.
Most notably, he stated that fighting isn’t going anywhere which White refuted.
Dana White discussed Stipe Miocic today and his delay to return to fighting to book the trilogy with Daniel Cormier via UFC Unfiltered pic.twitter.com/FkE8qaJAlZ
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) May 5, 2020
“I saw a quote from Stipe recently where Stipe said ‘there’s bigger things going on in the world right now, fighting will be there forever,'” White said on UFC Unfiltered. “It’s not true. Fighting will not be here forever.
“When you’re a professional athlete, your window of opportunity is very small. So, hopefully we can get Stipe back in there soon with [Daniel] Cormier and get the heavyweight division rolling.”
Of course, if Miocic — who has butted heads with White in the past — isn’t comfortable with fighting, he will likely go against the UFC head honcho’s wishes.
But that doesn’t mean White will consider an interim heavyweight title. Instead, he is open to potentially stripping Miocic as he told Barstool Sports in a separate interview.
“I don’t think so,” White said of an interim title (via MMA Fighting). “We’ll see a championship fight. Listen, fights can happen right now. You either want to fight or you don’t.”
White was then asked if he would strip a champion who didn’t want to fight.
“Possibly.”
Those comments certainly won’t go down well with many in the mixed martial arts world, least of all Miocic.
