5 of the longest spells of inactivity from a UFC champion

#1: Dominick Cruz – 2 years and 4 months

Dominick Cruz missed the best part of three years with various injuries

Poor Dominick Cruz. In this instance, the former UFC Bantamweight champion never managed to defend his title upon his return from injury as he’d been stripped of it despite not having any contract issues with the UFC.

Unfortunately for Cruz the promotion simply couldn’t wait any longer for him to return from a myriad of injuries that ended up sidelining him for a total period of 2 years and 11 months.

As a champion though, Cruz was out for 2 years and 4 months. His last title defense came against Demetrious Johnson in October 2011, and his next was scheduled for July 2012’s UFC 148 – a rematch against rival Urijah Faber following – you guessed it – a stint as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter.

It was during the filming of TUF that Cruz’s injury was announced – a torn ACL that would sideline him for around 6 months. Renan Barao stepped in to replace him and beat Faber for an Interim title, but before he could return to unify the belts, Cruz hit a setback when his body rejected an ACL transplant, shelving him for another nine months.

Barao made two successful defences of the Interim title before Cruz was finally announced as returning to unify the titles at February 2014’s UFC 169 – but a torn groin forced him out of the fight, and the UFC had no choice but to strip him of the title and crown Barao as undisputed champion.

Cruz would finally return to action in September 2014, but another torn ACL then left him on the shelf until January 2016, when he finally managed to reclaim his title by defeating TJ Dillashaw. Right now he’s injured again – this time with a broken arm – as his career continues to be blighted by bad luck.