Cruz blows ACL, Faber fight postponed

UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (19-1-0) has been withdrawn from the UFC 148 card after suffering a knee injury during training.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.