Cruz blows ACL, Faber fight postponed
Posted on May 7, 2012, 05:03 PM by Mike Searson
UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (19-1-0) has been withdrawn from the UFC 148 card after suffering a knee injury during training. This will postpone his highly anticipated match with Urijah Faber (26-5-0), indefinitely. This upcoming fight was being built up each week on The Ultimate Fighter: Live and now may be out more than a year in the future.
The news was first reported through the blogsphere and ultimately confirmed by UFC President Dana White on his Twitter feed.
The injury occurred while Cruz was training his team at the Alliance Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cruz suffered an injury to his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).
Faber first defeated Cruz in a round-one submission in Cruz's first bout in the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) in 2007. Cruz went on to win the bantamweight championship in that organization and became the UFC's first bantamweight title-holder. In a 2011 rematch against Faber, Cruz won by unanimous decision at UFC 132.
It is not known whether or not if UFC will name an interim champion while Cruz recuperates. Renan Barão (28-1-1) and Michael McDonald (15-1) seem to be likely contenders for an interim title holder to face Faber.
Comments
Gutted at this news, the ultimate card seems to be whittling down every week.
My suggestion would be keep Faber on the card and bring Barao up from the prelims to fight Faber for #1 contender spot.
If Michael McDonald is ready he could fight Menjivar to replace Barao.
Not a bad idea.
It sux though. I wanna see Faber knocking Cruz out
There is a God, and he also doesn't want to see Cruz Faber 3.
I really wanted to see this fight, too. ACL is no joke, it kept me from lifting and training for more than 2 years once.
Welcome Mike.
Mike, nice to see your name added to the writers. Looking forward to your work. Can you tell us who you used to be here?
They should name an Interim Champion who can wait until Cruz heals to fight him for the championship.
cruz hasnt fought since october and will now be out for months..i say faber vs barao for interim belt if urijah wins that will be an epic rubber match, both guys 1-1 and both champs DAM!
Put them both in leg braces and have a good old fashioned punch in the face contest.
Thanks Bruce. I just registered last week, I did not have an account on here previously. I write a local MMA column for examiner.com in the Reno/Tahoe area. If you read the mainstream gun and knife magazines you may have seen my work in there as well.
ha, thats pretty cool. Im a shooter here in Texas.
A good ARMY friend of mine lives in Sparks, I need to go visit him again
Well that sucks...
Damn thats no good. ACL injuries are really bad for athletes. More interim title bs?
Either way I hope Cruz comes back to 100% Id hate to have to hear Faber talk all big after beating a guy whos not what he was before his injury.
I was really looking forward to this fight. Cruz is a true competitor and I'm sure this is killing him but he'll be back. Hopfully he'll be able to keep the Faber Fury alive till he does...