Dominick Cruz has more than one opponent in his immediate future.
Sure, the UFC bantamweight champ has a likely date for his next fight against interim champ Renan Barao (28-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC). But before he can square off with the Brazilian, Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) has to knock out the recovery from a recent knee surgery.
While Cruz said he is being cautious to not rush his recovery, he believes in a perfect world he could be back to work in the early part of next year.
"I would say probably next year, and hopefully if all things go well I should be back to training within six months (from the surgery)," Cruz on Friday told MMAjunkie.com Radio (
MMAjunkie.com Radio | MMAjunkie.com). "In a perfect world – and I've been listening to the doctors so I don't reinjure myself – but in a perfect world I'm fighting in two weeks. But I'm going to say at the early beginning of next year, I'm hoping."
Cruz was coaching opposite his heated rival, Urijah Faber, on this past season of "The Ultimate Fighter Live" and training for his third fight with the Team Alpha Male leader. But he blew out his knee training, forcing the cancellation of their UFC 148 co-main event bout and setting up the interim bout between Faber and Barao, which Barao dominated at UFC 149 en route to a unanimous decision win.
For now, Cruz said he has to concentrate on rehabbing the knee – even though he knows Barao looms in his first fight back. Well, he likely looms. Cruz said if he was in Barao's position, he'd wait for a chance to unify the titles rather than defending the interim belt and risk losing it.
"I personally am in this sport to fight the best in the world and be the best," Cruz said. "If I was fighting me, I'd probably wait. … (But) you never assume anything. I'm not going to assume Barao's going to wait or move ahead.
"(But) I'm looking forward to it, also. He's got great fundamentals, great skills and he's a good challenge. It's new blood, and I feel like I've been fighting these Alpha Male guys forever, every one of them."
Cruz said he believes he's head of schedule in his recovery time – but that the injury is just that: one that takes time.
"The knee's doing well – as well as it can be in the short amount of time that's gone by," Cruz said. "It's only been about eight weeks out of the surgery. I've been doing therapy the whole time, and I've been doing well. I'm a little bit ahead of schedule, actually, on the mobility of my knee.
"This is a time injury, unfortunately. This is one of those injuries where it doesn't matter how good it feels or how strong you are. If you rush it, then you re-tear the surgery and you're out longer. So it's important that I stay real relaxed and I take my time – that way I don't reinjure myself."
As for Faber, his loss to Barao took him out of the title picture at least in the near future. But Cruz said he believes a trilogy fight with the former WEC featherweight champ is destined to happen.
"In my opinion, if the trilogy's going to happen, it's going to happen," Cruz said. "The fans what to see the fight. Me and that guy want to fight. We don't like each other. That's a given – everyone knows that. If that guy can go ahead and get a couple wins stacked up, I'll worry about it then. But right now, I've got my opponent set – and I have an opponent in a brace right now, and that's my knee.
I'm trying to fight this knee so I can fight this new opponent that I have. The last thing on my mind is that other guy."
