The rubber match will apparently have to wait.

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) has torn his ACL and is now unavailable to face opposing "The Ultimate Fighter: Live" coach Urijah Faber (26-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC 148.

The injury was first reported by PhyteGurus.com and has since been confirmed by multiple sources, including MMAWeekly.com.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed a Cruz injury with a separate but source but could specify the nature or deverity of the injury.

UFC officials have yet to make a formal announcement, and it's currently unknown if Faber will take another fight in the interim or wait for Cruz to heal. Multiple requests to UFC officials for comment by MMAjunkie.com went unanswered.

UFC 148 takes place July 7 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view, and FX and Facebook are expected to carry the prelims. Cruz vs. Faber III was originally expected to take the headlining slot of the event, but logistical issues forced the move of Anderson Silva (31-4 MMA, 14-0 UFC) vs. Chael Sonnen (27-11-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC) II from a planned Brazilian slot to the main event of UFC 148.

Cruz and Faber currently serve as opposing head coaches on "The Ultimate Fighter: Live." Their traditional coach-vs.-coach bout was set to place a month after the reality show's conclusion on FX.

It would have been their third meeting overall; Faber won the first at WEC 26 via submission to defend the WEC featherweight title, and in 2011, Cruz avenged the defeat with a unanimous-decision victory at UFC 132 to defend his UFC belt.

A timetable for Cruz's return has yet to be established.



Source: Report: Dominick Cruz injured, forced out of UFC 148 bout with Urijah Faber

Shame. UFC 148 could've been a blockbuster show with two headlining title fights. His replacement is yet to be confirmed, stay tuned for upcoming news.

Thats'fucked up, half of them TUF fights seem to get canceled or delayed nowadays, guess the show builds to much tension/overtraining for the head coaches.

Yeah 16 weeks that's a stretch. I still think the idea of a training camp during the live show is couterproductive for the coaches involved. That leaves them not much train to focus 100% - 3-4 weeks ain't enough...

Overall consensus is that Faber should face Barao and switch McDonald to face Menjivar I like the sounds of that

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY3AF25oPAQ[/youtube]

Thats a downer, I was really looking forward to the fight. Not that they are not good at finding replacement fights etc, they do a great job but as mentioned above, too many fights gets canceled these days. For some weird reason it seems to hgappen a lot on big fights but almost never on less hyped fights...

Yeah 2012 in terms of star power has been pretty disappointing: GSP sidelined, Lesnar retiring in 2011, Overeem, Nick Diaz lots of headliners gone.

From Mike Chiapetta at MMAFighting.com the coaches will NOT be replaced for the remainder of the show.