UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou was able to defend his title in September, per his reps. But that wasn’t soon enough for the promotion, which needed to put a belt on the line for UFC 265 and chose Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane to fight for one when a deal couldn’t be reached with Ngannou.
“You knew this was coming for weeks if we didn’t get a deal done,” UFC President Dana White told UFC Arabia reporter Farah Hannoun. “This has happened a million times.”
On Tuesday, White explained what he said was the promotion’s reasoning behind an interim title fight between Lewis and Gane, which was booked just three months after Ngannou captured the undisputed belt from Stipe Miocic.