Potentially bad news for any of us that wanted to see Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber 3 go down later this year, as it is now being reported that due to the severity of Cruz’s injury, it could take quite some time to heal.

According to a report by Ariel Helwani on “UFC Tonight” (transcribed by mmamania.com) it could be up to 18 months before we see Cruz in the Octagon again.

"He's actually feeling great. You know, he had the surgery on June 6th, a total reconstruction of his ACL and MCL in his left leg. He's feeling great. He's saying he's ahead of schedule right now. Right now, it's a little too early to say just when he'll be ready to return. He's doing the normal physical therapy, right now. This is an injury that could take an athlete nine to maybe 18 months to return to his previous form. So right now, his spirits are high, but he doesn't want to put any kind of date out as far as when he could return to the Octagon."

Cruz will hopefully only need 9 months, but considering the surgery repaired both the ACL and MCL, it could very likely take more than 9 months to return to form.

For example GSP just had his ACL repaired, and he’s currently been sidelined since December 7 2011. GSP is tentatively scheduled to return at UFC 154 in Montreal in November, and if he does, it will have been almost a month shy of a year from his surgery. Considering Cruz had both of ACL & MCL surgically repaired, and taking GSP's healing time into consideration could mean that Cruz could possibly be in for a very long layoff.

Related News Articles:

UFC 161: Renan Barao Offically off Card with Injury, Urijah Faber Open to Replacing Champ vs. Wineland

Daniel Cormier wants UFC on Fox Sports 1 1 fight in Boston

Matt Riddle joins Bellator, will take part in Season 9 welterweight tournament

Mark Hunt gets his visa, will face Dos Santos at UFC 160