Dana White gave his facet of Shakur Stevenson’s shocking departure from Zuffa Boxing.
Stevenson, the reigning WBO tremendous light-weight champion and Uncrowned’s No. 4 pound-for-pound boxer, parted methods with Zuffa Boxing this previous week after spending roughly three months under contract without competing in a single struggle. Speaking Saturday following UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, White gave his model of how the cut up unfolded, but declined to focus on the circumstances that led to it.
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“I offered him his release,” White claimed. “I offered him the release.
“Listen man, I think that everyone concerned, they’re pleased with where we’re at with it,” he continued. “I have nothing unhealthy to say about him or his workforce. But I provided him the release and they accepted.”
Asked why he was keen to release Stevenson when numerous UFC stars such as Jon Jones and Sean Strickland have struggled to secure their own releases in the previous, White pointed to the temporary nature of Stevenson’s relationship with Zuffa Boxing.
“Well, we never even did one struggle with the man,” White said. “We were in business with him for a couple months.”
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Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) signed with Zuffa Boxing this past July. The promotion attempted to arrange several matchups for Stevenson, including a high-profile showdown with Devin Haney, but was ultimately unable to finalize a fight.
Stevenson’s longtime manager, James “J” Prince, informed FightHubTV on Friday that negotiations with Haney consumed too much time and accused Haney’s father and coach, Bill Haney, of stopping the matchup from occurring.
“We had a contract, so the purses and various things were fairly much agreed upon,” Prince said. “It was just getting an opponent. I think a lot of time was spent on the improper opponent, which was Devin Haney.”
Prince also recommended that Stevenson’s workforce was sad with how negotiations had been dealt with all through the course of with Zuffa Boxing, saying Stevenson needed to work with people who would “honor their phrase and keep their phrase.”
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White, however, declined to address those concerns or discuss what happened during the failed negotiations.
“Listen, I’m not going to get into anything of this,” White said. “I’m not going to say anything negatively about him or ‘we tried to do this’ or ‘we tried to do that.’ Just, we got to a place where we both agreed, we were cool with a release.”
For now, Stevenson is once again a free agent — and he’s already discovered himself the goal of a callout from WBC tremendous light-weight champion Dalton Smith.
Following Smith’s cut up choice win over former two-time titleholder Alberto Puello on Saturday, Smith and Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn called for a unification struggle against Stevenson at Sheffield, England’s Hillsborough Stadium.
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