Two of the UFC’s current champions, Dominick Cruz and Jose Aldo are currently sidelined through injury and yesterday word on how long it may be before we see them back in the Octagon emerged.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look as if we’ll be seeing bantamweight champ Cruz anytime soon as he’s facing a very long road back after having surgery to completely reconstruct the ACL and MCL in his left leg.
“This is an injury that could take an athlete nine to maybe 18 months to return to his previous form,” Ariel Helwani reported on UFC Tonight. “So right now, his spirits are high, but he doesn’t want to put any kind of date out as far as when he could return to the Octagon.”
That’s a heck of a long time and validates the UFC’s decision to put No.1 contender Urijah Faber into an interim title fight with Renan Barao at UFC 149 in the mean time.
Meanwhile, the news is a little better for featherweight belt holder Aldo who had to withdraw from his next title defense against Eric Koch at UFC 149 due to an injury to his left leg.
It turns out that he won’t need surgery and while nothing’s set in stone just yet the Brazilian star is now hoping to return to action in October according to his manager Andre Pederneiras.
With the UFC not having it’s troubles to seek lately with several cards being decimated due to injuries news of Aldo’s progress will surely come as welcome relief.
