Dominick Cruz Injured, Vacates title; Urijah Faber in Against Renan Barao at UFC 169

Dominick Cruz Injured, Vacates title; Urijah Faber in Against Renan Barao at UFC 169
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter this afternoon to confirm Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 169 champion vs champion unification bout with interim champion Renan Barao (31-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) due to a groin tear. Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber (20-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC) will replace Cruz against Barao.

“Renan Barao’s been tearing through everybody,” White said. “But Faber’s been on a tear, too, with four straight wins against the best of the world. Not only is he ready for this, the guy’s an absolute stud and is taking the fight on three weeks’ notice.”

Having not fought for over 2 years due to a series of knee injuries and surgeries, Cruz will now vacate his bantamweight title making Barao now the UFC's undisputed 135lb Champion. Whist Cruz was sidelined from injury, Barao won the interim title by beating Faber at UFC 149. Barao then defended the title with a submission victory over Michael McDonald at UFC on Fuel 7 in London, and TKO victory over Eddie Wineland, who he defeated by turning side kick at UFC 165 in September.

One of the most popular fighter in all of MMA, Faber enters the bout of the back of a 4 fight win streak that has seen the California kid go undefeated in 2013. With impressive victories over Ivan Menjivar, Scott Jorgensen, Yuri Alcantara, and most recently Michael McDonald, Faber was one of the best performing athletes in all of MMA in 2013. One which has prompted some fans to declare Faber as 'Fighter of the Year' for 2013.

 UFC 169 takes place Feb. 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. As well as a title fight between Barao and Faber, Jose Aldo will also defend his Featherweight title against Richardo Lamas.

With the change to UFC 169, the card is now includes:

Main Card
Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber - For The UFC Bantamweight Title
Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas For The UFC Featherweight Title
Frank Mir vs. Alistair Overeem
Ali Bagautinov vs. John Lineker
Abel Trujillo vs. Jamie Varner

Preliminary Card
John Makdessi vs. Alan Patrick
Chris Cariaso vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
Nick Catone vs. Tom Watson
Al Iaquinta vs. Kevin Lee
Andy Enz vs. Clint Hester
Rashid Magomedov vs. Tony Martin
Neil Magny vs. Gasan Umalatov