Dana White Noncommittal Regarding Title Shots for Francis Ngannou, Joseph Benavidez

Both Francis Ngannou and Joseph Benavidez appeared to solidify their positions as No. 1 contender in their respective divisions at UFC on ESPN 3 this past Saturday.

Ngannou earned his third consecutive first-round finish in the evening’s headliner at the Target Center in Minneapolis, as he thumped Junior dos Santos in just 71 seconds. “The Predator’s” current winning streak also includes stoppages of Cain Velasquez and Curtis Blaydes. Ngannou has regained nearly all of the momentum he lost after consecutive defeats to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis took much of the shine off his quick rise to prominence within the Las Vegas-based promotion.

Benavidez, meanwhile, remains one of the best fighters to never capture a title in a major organization. On Saturday, he took out Jussier Formiga for a second time in the co-main event, giving him nine wins in his last 10 UFC appearances. Included in that stretch is a split-decision victory over reigning 125-pound champion Henry Cejudo.

However, UFC president Dana White isn’t ready to guarantee anything to either man just yet — and probably for good reason. At heavyweight, nothing can be decided until Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic square off in the UFC 241 main event in August. Cormier could retain the title and then retire, and Miocic already owns a dominant triumph over Ngannou.

“This fight has to play out first. Stipe and Cormier has to play out, who wins, how they come out of that fight, what does Cormier want to do next if he wins,” White said over the weekend on the UFC’s post-fight show. “So there’s a lot of things that play into what’s next. “It’s not as easy as ‘I won tonight, I’m next for the fight’ and we know this. I go through this every single time there’s a fight.”

Cejudo is expected to be sidelined until 2020 as he recovers from shoulder surgery. Further complicating matters is the fact that the Olympic gold medalist is a two-division champion, and it is unclear whether he will defend the bantamweight or flyweight crown when he returns to action. White was effusive in his praise of Benavidez, but the former Team Alpha Male stalwart could be playing the waiting game if it’s a title shot he desires.

“It’s definitely not good for Benavidez,” White said. “He’s going to be in this waiting period but I know that Cejudo came out and said he wants to defend that [flyweight] belt first. Benavidez looked good [on Saturday]. He got busted up in that first round, got two really bad cuts in really bad places. He didn’t let it get into his head and didn’t it throw his game off. Landing that nice head kick.

“Benavidez is a guy who’s been in this company a very long time, hard working guy, toes the line, does whatever he needs to do. It’s good to see him win tonight against a really tough opponent and get into the position that he’s in right now.”