UFC champ Dominick Cruz to face Barao vs. Wineland winner or lose belt

TORONTO – When UFC President Dana White talks, it seems he wishes there was some other way to put it. Alas, there isn’t. If UFC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz isn’t ready to compete in early 2014, he’s going to lose his belt.

“It’s getting to the point now where it’s just like, if he can’t fight at the beginning of the year, we’ve got to pull the trigger,” White told MMAjunkie.com at today’s pre-UFC 165 media event in Toronto.

Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) hasn’t fought since October 2011, when he earned a unanimous-decision win over Demetrious Johnson for his second consecutive defense of the UFC’s bantamweight belt. He remains the only 135-pound champ the UFC has ever seen, but it’s been nearly two years since he’s defended the belt.

A pair of knee reconstructions are to blame for the lengthy layoff. Cruz was originally expected to return to action against Urijah Faber in a rubber match between the two longtime rivals. The bout was going to serve as the co-main event of the massive “UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II” fight card, and Cruz was expected to receive a percentage of the pay-per-view revenue, according to White.

But a torn ACL scrapped those plans.

“That kid lost his lottery ticket,” White said.

Cruz’s body later rejected the cadaver ligament used in the reconstruction, and he underwent a second surgery to repair the joint. Along the way, Cruz has remained incredibly positive, and he’s aiming for a return to action in early 2014.

And while White has long said the company wasn’t looking to strip Cruz of the belt, the UFC boss said if the champ can’t keep to that schedule, the winner of UFC 165's co-feature between current interim champ Renan Barao (30-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) and top contender Eddie Wineland (20-8-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) would likely be granted full champion status.

“The interim champ would become the champ, and then he would defend the title against whoever was next,” White said.

White admits he hasn’t yet had that conversation with Cruz, but for good reason. White said he knows how frustrated Cruz must be to still be sitting on the sidelines, and he doesn’t want to make things any worse.

“We’ve never had that conversation with him,” White said. “We’ve said, ‘Listen, when are you coming back?’ The kid has had enough bad things happen to him, and I’m sure is under enough pressure and stress. He hasn’t made a living in two years. That’s how he makes his living, and he hasn’t been able to fight in two years.”

While instituting interim champs isn’t something the UFC has done with any degree of regularity, the promotion has also fielded temporary title holders in the heavyweight and welterweight divisions over the past few years. Cruz’s extended layoff has forced White to admit the company probably needs to develop a “standard on what happens” with such cases.

White admits he doesn’t know exactly that policy might entail, but he thinks enough is enough at 135 pounds. While the UFC boss has no desire to take the belt off of any of his champs, he somewhat begrudgingly admits the time has come for Cruz to defend the title or hand it over.

“It’s been two years,” White said. “A lot of people think we’re crazy for holding up the title this long, but it’s a tough thing to do to take a title away from somebody. It’s hard to do.”

UFC 165 takes place Saturday at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. The evening’s main card airs on pay-per-view.

For more on UFC 165, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Dominick Cruz and Joe Rogan)