White: Dominick Cruz won't be stripped of bantamweight title unless he retires

It appears that UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz doesn't have to fear having his belt taken from him by the organization despite his run of bad luck with injuries. Cruz, who hasn't competed since October 2011, has had major issues with his ACL and it was thought that when the UFC created an interim title and he still wasn't ready to take on the winner, he might be forced to relinquish his belt. But UFC president Dana White says that's not the case at all (via MMA Junkie):

"If he starts training again and gets another injury that's going to take him out for a year – and I hate to even say this about the kid since he's a really good kid – but he should seriously probably look at retiring," White said. "But I'm not taking something like [the title] from somebody.

"The way that it works in the fight business is you beat the man who beat the man. Obviously, though, if he had to retire, then [the interim titleholder] would automatically become the champion."

White did say that he thought that Cruz might be able to return soon and could even maybe face the winner of this weekend's interim title bout between Renan Barao and Michael McDonald at UFC on Fuel 7. But he understandably cautious about creating too much hope around the situation:

"We expect him to come back," White said. "Everything is going as well as can be expected, and hopefully he comes back soon. But that's really all I can say."