UFC president Dana White has claimed Rose Namajunas 'doesn’t want to fight for the title’ next year.

It was expected that Namajunas, 28, was going to fight Zhang Weili, 31, who is the current strawweight champion.

But White has now claimed that Namajunas isn’t interested in the fight.

"What I'm hearing is Rose does not want a title shot," White told BT Sport.

"Rose does not want to fight for the title. So we're looking at the rankings and how it plays out. It would play out as Weili vs. Carla Esparza."

But Namajunas' fiancé and coach Pat Barry has said the claims are false in a statement to ESPN. 

Barry said: "That is absolutely not true. We absolutely want the title fight. Who would turn down a title fight? 

“We just don’t want to air this out publicly. If there was some confusion, they can call us to clear it up.”

Namajunas last fought at UFC 251 in July where she beat Jessica Andrade via split decision.