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SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
January - 2015
13
Unfortunately, Cruz would
not be able to catch the
break he fought so hard to
earn, as he revealed that
an ACL tear would force
him to miss much of 2015.
To make matters worse,
Assuncao, announced an
ankle injury at around the
same time as the news of
Cruz’s ACL tear. Natural-
ly, when the MMA world
learned of both injuries,
they tried calling once
again for Dillashaw-Faber,
but to no avail.
Though a great number of
fans and experts can cer-
tainly applaud Dillashaw
for fighting whoever the
MMA juggernaut puts in
front of him, there is no
question that the UFC
now faces a serious di-
lemma. Though other
very credible names like
Michael McDonald. Ed-
die Wineland, and Bryan
Caraway, among others,
stand among the top 15
bantamweights in the divi-
sion, they’re either coming
off of losses or fresh off
wins that many expected
them to get.
In other words, while men
like Iuri Alcantara and John-
ny Eduardo looked good
in recent performances,
they still need to secure
some more wins against
higher-ranked fighters. It
certainly doesn’t help mat-
ters that Faber himself al-
most always finds himself
racking victories on top of
victories in non-title fights,
and yet he may not make
a serious bid for the title
unless someone defeats
his teammate.
That leaves Barao, who
was thoroughly decimated
by Dillashaw and has had
the champion’s name in his
mouth ever since. Submit-
ting Mitch Gagnon in the
third round of their UFC
Fight Night 58 tilt in Baru-
eri last weekend, despite
Gagnon’s strongest efforts
in the second round, was a
step in the right direction,
and with both Cruz and
Assuncao out, the only
man Barao may have left to
challenge on his road back
to the title is Faber, provid-
ed Dillashaw doesn’t end
up saying yes to another
fight with Barao.
If not Barao, though,
then who? Dillashaw
himself has expressed a
desire to go up to feath-
erweight and fight reign-
ing 145-pound champion
Jose Aldo, while The Ulti-
mate Fighter 14 bantam-
weight winner John Dod-
son, now a flyweight, has
opened up to the idea of
a rematch with Dillashaw.
At this point, the only cer-
tainty about Dillashaw is
that he will return when
he returns, but until then,
the UFC will have quite the
task ahead of them when
it comes to letting the UFC
bantamweight title picture
sort itself out in the ab-
sence of the only two men
that, logically speaking,
deserve the absolute next
crack at the throne.