Dominick Cruz has been on the sidelines for almost 17 months now, and recently it was revealed that Cruz underwent another ACL surgery. For now, his exact return date is still unkown.
It could be time to for the UFC to strip Dominick Cruz from his UFC Bantamweight Championship belt and name Renan Barao the UFC Bantamweight Champion. Renan Barao won the Interim UFC Bantamweight Championship on July 21, 2012 at UFC 149 against Urijah Faber by Unanimous Decision. And while Cruz was sidelined with his injury, Barao already defended the Interim Belt once against Michael McDonald at UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs. McDonald. Barao is expected to make his second title defense against Eddie Wineland on June 15, 2013 at UFC 161.
So what happens if Cruz, who's already undergone two ACL injuries, is further delayed? The UFC created an interim title and Cruz still wasn't ready to take on the winner, he might be forced to relinquish his belt. But UFC president Dana White says that's not the case at all:
"If he starts training again and gets another injury that's going to take him out for a year – and I hate to even say this about the kid since he's a really good kid – but he should seriously probably look at retiring," White said. "But I'm not taking something like [the title] from somebody.
"The way that it works in the fight business is you beat the man who beat the man. Obviously, though, if he had to retire, then [the interim titleholder] would automatically become the champion."
"The way that it works in the fight business is you beat the man who beat the man. Obviously, though, if he had to retire, then [the interim titleholder] would automatically become the champion."
Dominick Cruz has been a model champion, but the UFC stripped Frank Mir from his title 14 months after his motorcycle accident, so why make an exception?
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