If Cain Velasquez's next fight gets pushed back again, his title may be stripped of him according to company president Dana White. The UFC heavyweight king, however, says he does not care if it happens.
Cain Velasquez's next fight was supposedly scheduled for this past weekend at UFC 180 in his family's native country of Mexico, but was forced out of the bout due to an injury. Instead, PRIDE FC legend and mixed martial arts veteran Mark Hunt stepped in as his replacement with just a few weeks notice, and fought Fabriciow Werdum for the interim heavyweight title.
While Cain Velasquez's next fight has not been finalized yet, the shelved champion's camp is looking at March for his comeback date. Given that Werdum successfully defeated Hunt and earned the interim title, UFC President Dana White now stipulates that should Velasquez be unable to fight for another six months to a year, his title may be stripped of him.
"We're headed in that direction now," White said in the November 13 edition of The Download. "This next fight in Mexico is for the interim title. So if Cain couldn't compete again, the winner of this fight would be seen as the champion."
Having received some backlash due to this statement, White went on to clear things up after Saturday night's event.
"What I said was if we end up in a situation where Cain got injured again, severely injured - if he blew his shoulder out again, if he had to have knee surgery that would keep him out six to a year - then Werdum would become champion," the UFC executive said in a report by MMA Junkie.
For his part, however, Velasquez says that having his title taken away from him will not be that much of an issue, as long as he gets to fight for it.
"It doesn't matter to me," Velasquez told Ariel Helwani during a post-fight interview with UFC on FOX. "I don't care. As long as I fight and the next fight will be for a title, I'm happy with that. I really don't care about having the title (and) the name that comes with it. I really don't care as long as I fight for the title and I earn it."
