UFC president Dana White justified creating an interim heavyweight title for UFC 265’s main event between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis.

The main event of August’s UFC 265 pay-per-view was expected to feature UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou vs. Lewis for the undisputed title. However, Ngannou was not ready to go on August 7 in Houston, Texas, and with Houston native Lewis still on the card, White and the UFC went ahead and booked Gane for an interim title fight, despite the fact Ngannou just beat former champion Stipe Miocic back in March.

Speaking to Farah Hannoun of UFC Arabia, White justified the interim title fight between Gane and Lewis. Although some fans aren’t pleased with it, White believes that it makes sense and explained why the UFC decided to go ahead and book this fight for the interim belt despite Ngannou being fully healthy.

Dana White addresses Francis Ngannou and how the #UFC265 interim heavyweight title fight between Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane came about. Full interview coming to @UFCarabia pic.twitter.com/aU8ewUULJT

— Farah Hannoun (@Farah_Hannoun) July 6, 2021

“We needed to go on that date in Houston, so that’s how that worked out,” White said. “This has happened a million times. What happens is, we run a business and we put on fights every Saturday night, and we needed to do that fight in Houston. We couldn’t get the deal done, so we did it. We did an interim title fight which absolutely makes sense. We’ve got Derrick Lewis, the No. 2 ranked guy in the world. Stipe’s the No. 1 guy but he just lost. Lewis actually beat Francis Ngannou, and Ciryl Game off that win that weekend (over Alexander Volkov),” continued White. “So you’ve got the top-two guys in the world to fight for the interim championship. And when Francis is ready to go after this fight, we’ll make that fight with the winner.”

Do you agree with Dana White and his reasoning for creating an interim title for the UFC 265 main event between Ciryl Gane and Derick Lewis?