Uncrowned Staff Sun, October 25, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC · 2 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dana White gave his side of Shakur Stevenson's surprising departure from Zuffa Boxing .
Stevenson, the reigning WBO super lightweight champion and Uncrowned's No. 4 pound-for-pound boxer , parted ways with Zuffa Boxing this past week after spending roughly three months under contract without competing in a single fight . Speaking Saturday following UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi , White gave his version of how the split unfolded, but declined to discuss the circumstances that led to it.
"I offered him his release," White claimed. "I offered him the release.
"Listen man, I think that everyone involved, they're happy with where we're at with it," he continued. "I have nothing bad to say about him or his team. But I offered him the release and they accepted."
Asked why he was willing to release Stevenson when countless UFC stars such as Jon Jones and Sean Strickland have struggled to secure their own releases in the past, White pointed to the brief nature of Stevenson's relationship with Zuffa Boxing.
"Well, we never even did one fight with the guy," White said. "We were in business with him for a couple months."
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, told FightHubTV on Friday that negotiations with Haney consumed too much time and accused Haney's father and trainer, Bill Haney, of preventing the matchup from happening.
"We had a contract, so the purses and different things were pretty much agreed upon," Prince said. "It was just getting an opponent. I think a lot of time was spent on the wrong opponent, which was Devin Haney."
Prince also suggested that Stevenson's team was unhappy with how negotiations had been handled throughout the process with Zuffa Boxing , saying Stevenson wanted to work with people who would "honor their word and keep their word."
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 position where we both agreed, we were cool with a release."
For now, Stevenson is once again a free agent — and he's already found himself the target of a callout from WBC super lightweight champion Dalton Smith.
Following Smith's split decision win over former two-time titleholder Alberto Puello on Saturday, Smith and Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn called for a unification fight against Stevenson at Sheffield, England's Hillsborough Stadium.
Source: Sports
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