Miocic has previously stated that he may not compete until the coronavirus pandemic ends and UFC President Dana White says that stripping Miocic of the gold may be the right thing to do.
“This whole crew (fighting at UFC 249) trained, we have two more groups of fighters coming in this week that trained and got ready,” White said during the UFC 249 virtual media scrum (via Mike Bohn & John Morgan of MMA Junkie). “The division has to move on for all the other people. We want to do that trilogy fight then you got the winner of Francis (Ngannou) and (Jairzinho) Rozenstruik waiting in the wings, too. People are waiting. It’s the right thing to do.”
There has been no response yet from Miocic as to possibly being stripped of the heavyweight title.
While White hasn’t named a timeline for possibly stripping Miocic of the title, it appears White would like to have a title defense by August.
“I think it speaks for itself,” White said. “It is what it is. Most of these states are opening back up. Even Nevada. Nevada, California and New York, as far as I know, have been like the toughest states, and they’re starting to loosen up and open up. We should be able to get a fight by August.”
If Miocic does defend the title in August, it would mark the one year point since he won the gold at UFC 241 in August of last year.
