Dana White appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter on Monday to announce that UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is withdrawing from his UFC 169 bout with Renan Barao.
Cruz suffered a groin tear in training that caused his withdrawal from the fight, which was set to headline the event. With his latest setback, he will vacate the belt, which promotes Barao to undisputed champion of the bantamweight division.
Urijah Faber will now fight Barao for the bantamweight belt on Feb. 1. This marks the first time a UFC belt has been forfeited due to inactivity since 2005, per ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto.
Barao vs. Faber will remain the main event and the featherweight championship bout between Jose Aldo and Ricardo Lamas will stay as the co-main event, per Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com.
Barao beat Faber in 2012 to become the interim champion of the bantamweight division. He has twice defended the belt against Michael McDonald (whom he submitted at UFC on Fuel TV 9) and Eddie Wineland (whom he knocked out at UFC 158).
Faber, meanwhile, has won four straight fights since losing to Barao.
“Not only is [Faber] ready for this, the guy is a stud and stepped up and took the fight on three weeks notice,” White said on SportsCenter.
It’s not known how long Cruz will be out of commission from his newest injury. But it is a huge blow for the now-former champion, who has been sidelined by a series of knee problems since Oct. 2011. He has sacrificed a great deal of his athletic prime due to injury.
It is unclear if he will immediately fight the winner of Barao vs. Faber when he returns, or if he will be forced to work his way back to a title shot.
UFC 169 takes place on Feb. 1, 2014, in Newark, N.J. Stick with Bleacher Report for more details as they become available.
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