I don't know why but it really doesn't feel that long, but apparently it is.
With Cruz it seemed like he was out forever and he basically was. He defended the belt in October 2011 against DJ and then got injured and came back against Mizugaki in September 2014, then was out again until January of this year.
14 months is a long time to be on the sidelines as champ, but Cruz was out for nearly 3 years, literally just days away from the 3 year mark (October 1, 2011 - September 27, 2014, just days). If we really want we can include him being out until January 17, 2016 when he came back to beat Dillashaw.
Cormier has been out for a pretty long stretch but there's no way he'll be out as long as Cruz was. I'm confident Cormier will fight Rumble on the newly scheduled date they have (I forget when it's supposed to, unless it hasn't been officially rescheduled yet).
If Cormier gets injured again, then the only thing the UFC can do is strip him just like they did with Cruz. I'm guessing Rumble will then have to fight for the vacant belt against somebody, but who? I don't know how long Jones is out but it'd be awesome to see Jones/Rumble finally happen.
That's a far more interesting match-up than DC/Rumble 2 is, in my opinion. I have a feeling it would be Rumble/Gus 2 though since Jones is out and DC would be injured/stripped - what else could they really make besides that anyway?
It really just doesn't feel like it's been 14 to months already since the DC/Gus fight though, time just flew by, I guess. Maybe it's because Conor has been the talk of the town for so long that I completely forgot about how long it's been since Cormier defended his title.
I guess we'll just have to wait to see what happens in the next few months. I hope DC doesn't get injured and stripped because it takes so much legitimacy away from whoever the LHW champion is, at least in my opinion.
We all know Jones is the real champion since he never lost the belt in a fight, but for DC to get stripped and then somebody else to become champ, which I'm guessing could be Rumble/Gus 2, that's two paper champs in a row since Jones, the real champ, has been suspended and all that.
The LHW division is falling apart, yo.