Two title fights have been added to the UFC 169 fight card, as Dominick Cruz returns from injury to take on Renan Barao in a unification bout and Jose Aldo puts his featherweight title on the line against Ricardo Lamas.
Dominick Cruz vs Renan Barao and Jose Aldo vs Ricardo Lamas added to UFC 169 fight card
UFC officials confirmed the bouts on Tuesday, after Newsday first reported it.
Cruz (19-1) has been out of action for the past two years due to numerous knee injuries. “The Dominator” has not lost a fight since 2007 when he was finished by Urijah Faber in a WEC bout. Cruz has fought twice inside the UFC Octagon and defeated both Faber (UFC 132) and most recently Demetrious Johnson (UFC Live).
Barao (31-1) lost his first professional bout in 2005 and has since amassed an outstanding 31-fight winning streak. At UFC 149 in 2012 he won the Interim title against Faber and followed up by defending it on two occasions, Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland.
The other title match-up is in the featherweight division. Aldo (23-1) has defended his featherweight championship five times and has not lost a bout since 2005. Most recently Aldo finished The Korean Zombie Chan Sung Jung in the fourth round of their UFC 163 main event match.
Lamas (13-2) has been waiting in the wings for quite some time now. In fact, he was all but promised a title shot just a short time ago, but wound up getting injured. Riding a four-fight winning streak, Lamas most recently defeated Erik Koch via TKO at UFC on FOX 6 in January.
UFC 169 goes down on February 1, 2014 from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Keep it locked to MMASucka.com for more news on the UFC 169 fight card as it arises.
