Dana White Thinks Daniel Cormier Was ‘Little Dramatic’ By Relinquishing Title
Dana White thinks the fact that Daniel Cormier relinquished the title over a certain reason was a little dramatic. On Friday afternoon, the current UFC heavyweight champion announced that he would be relinquishing the light heavyweight title.
In the past while leading up to his recent UFC 230 fight, Cormier stated that thinks that the reason the UFC is stripping of the belt is due to their belief he has no current plans to defend it. Thus, the promotion booked Jon Jones vs. Alexander
The UFC was going to strip Cormier of the title just a few hours before the show. Thus, Cormier beat the UFC to the own punch and gave up the title instead.
The UFC President gave his reaction while doing a recent interview following the UFC 232 weigh-ins.
“He’s being a little dramatic right now,” White told MMAjunkie. “He’s being a little dramatic because of his hatred for Jon Jones. He would’ve never been stripped. He’s vacating. … I expect Cormier to be all fired up and on a rampage. He hates this guy.”
Make no mistake about it though, White does understand where Cormier is coming from and his decision he made.
White Understands
“I heard that he ended up relinquishing his belt, and I think it’s a good look,” Jones said on the UFC 232 weigh-ins show on FS1. “I know most people know he was never the champion. Hat’s off to him for being the heavyweight champion of the world, but I’ve been the light heavyweight champion since 2011. That’s just facts. The belt was given to him. He has not beat me. So he can cancel all doubts by challenging me and really being a legit champ-champ.”
Although White sticks to his decision to book this certain fight at UFC 232 for the title, he doesn’t want to take anything away from what Cormier achieved.
“At the end of the day he wasn’t being stripped of the title, he was vacating the title,” White said. “It would never go down in history that he was stripped. ‘I’m going to get stripped and I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I told ‘DC’ a long time ago: ‘If you’re my champion for the rest of my career, I’m good with that.’ He’s one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever worked with, such a good guy.”
