Injury jinxed bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz received some good news this week as it turns out that the foot injury he suffered during his split decision win over TJ Dillashaw at UFC Fight Night 81 last weekend is not as serious as was first thought.
Doctors have confirmed that Cruz has a minor tear of his left plantar fascia which should only require around 4-6 weeks to heal – much better than the 3-4 month layoff that had originally seemed to be a possibility.
With that in mind Cruz is now looking ahead to his first title defense, with a number of options potentially on the table, including an immediate rematch with Dillashaw, a trilogy fight with his biggest rival Urijah Faber, or even a potential ‘superfight’ rematch with flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson.
Post-fight in Boston Cruz had seemed less than enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting Faber for a third time, but almost a week later it seems he’s warmed to the idea.
“For the past four years, the only name I’ve been asked about is Faber,” Cruz told MMAfighting.com, “Whether I’m on the FOX desk or shopping at the mall. Let’s get him out of my face and out of the way, so I can continue to clean out the division.
“We owe it to the fans to make this trilogy happen. It’s been almost a decade in the making.”
The only loss of Cruz’s 22 fight career came against Faber back at WEC 26 in 2007 while both were competing at featherweight, with Faber winning by first round guillotine choke.
Four years later they met again, this time in the UFC competing at bantamweight, and this time it was Cruz who emerged victorious via unanimous decision.
A trilogy fight had initially been lined up to take place in 2012 after the two served as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live on FX, but Cruz would go on to suffer a knee injury that kept him out of the fight and due to recurring problems with it he wouldn’t fight again for several years.
Now Cruz is finally back healthy and looking better than ever, while Faber is still in the hunt for another title shot and currently ranked No.3 in the division, so now is probably as good a time as any for this fight to take place, with the winner potentially going on to fight Dillashaw next.
