After an injury forced UFC light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier to withdraw from his title defence against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206, middleweight Gegard Mousasi threw up a beefy paw to take on Johnson for a shot at an interim title belt.
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The UFC gave it the green light but Rumble shut it down.
Why?
"When Gegard was presented to me, it would’ve been a good fight, but it wouldn’t have done anything for me," Johnson told The MMA Hour.
"Fighting him and becoming the interim champion, as much trash as I’ve talked and ‘DC’ has talked about interim titles being fake champions, if I would have beat him, it wouldn’t mean anything."
"And if I had lost, I would have to start from scratch. It was just too risky."
Mousasi just ran through Uriah Hall at UFC Belfast, walking away with a first round TKO and extending his unbeaten 2016 run to four fights and, although a middleweight in the UFC, he’s previously held the Strikeforce and Dream straps at 206 pounds (93kg).
Instead, Rumble is happy to wait for Cormier to heal from a torn adductor tendon.
"I was disappointed, but I didn’t take it to heart because he is actually hurt. It’s not like he just popped a rib or twisted his ankle; the man is actually hurt. It didn’t bother me too bad," Johnson said.
While Cormier is on the sidelines – which could be as long as February or March, 2017 – Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway will be bumped up to headline the fight card, trading fists for the interim featherweight title after Conor McGregor was stripped of the 145-pound (65kg) gold.
