Wrong. DC himself said he was going to be stripped of his LHW title because he refused to defend against Jones in December because of a "hand issue". He also wanted to defend against Brock over Jones in January instead which would leave LHW going like 1.5 years without title fights if so:
Daniel Cormier might not be UFC champ-champ for much longer. During a Monday appearance on \
mmajunkie.usatoday.com
The next week in October DC magically accepted a fight against Lewis in November despite his supposed hand issue, which is where he hurt his back in that camp, while Jones/Gus 2 was announced for the vacant title in December as the UFC had wanted and DC was being stripped the moment their fight started.
He was being stripped before his back injury because he wouldn't defend at LHW. DC instead ended up going down in history as having "vacated" the title because the night before his stripping he pettily vacated the title to avoid that smear.