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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC is not having any luck with the bantamweight division. With Champion Dominick Cruz sidelined with a bad knee injury, they introduced an Interim Title last summer. Renan Barao captured that belt, then defended it in February, and with Cruz still out was set to defend it again next month.
Not anymore.
Brazilian site Tatame.com reports that Barao has suffered an injury to his right foot, taking him out of his bout against Eddie Wineland in the UFC 161 main event next month in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
There's no word on any replacement as of yet, but Wineland will likely hold out until Barao is able to return hopefully later in the summer.
Penick's Analysis: This is not good for the bantamweight division right now. Though it's not known how severe the injury is to Barao, having both the Champion and Interim Champion injured at all is just really negative for the division and the UFC. It also puts the UFC in a scramble as the first main event to be taken out by injury in 2013. They've avoided that problem to this point, but now they've got just a few weeks to figure out either a new main event, or to run with "Shogun" Rua against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, which would be far from ideal. Regardless, this puts them in a bad spot with the event a month away.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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