LONDON – UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has been on the sidelines for 16 months, and with recent knee surgeries, his exact return date remains unknown. But don’t expect the UFC to strip his title anytime soon.

The division, of course, has moved on without Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC). Renan Barao (29-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who defeated Urijah Faber for the interim title in July, next meets challenger Michael McDonald (19-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on Saturday at UFC on FUEL TV 7 in London.

But what happens if Cruz, who’s already undergone two ACL injuries, is further delayed?

Regardless, White said, don’t expect the Barao-McDonald winner to drop the “interim” tag. Not unless the 27-year-old Cruz calls it quits, anyway.

“If he starts training again and gets another injury that’s going to take him out for a year – and I hate to even say this about the kid since he’s a really good kid – but he should seriously probably look at retiring,” White said. “But I’m not taking something like from somebody.

“The way that it works in the fight business is you beat the man who beat the man. Obviously, though, if he had to retire, then would automatically become the champion.”

White, though, suggested such a scenario is unlikely. Cruz previously held the WEC title until he was folded into the UFC’s new bantamweight division and dubbed its first champion in late 2010. He defeated Faber in July 2011 and then topped Demetrious Johnson a few months later. However, while preparing for a rubber match with Faber back in July, he tore his ACL and underwent surgery. Then, later that year, his body rejected cadaver tissue, and he was forced to go under the knife again.

“I’ve never seen anybody with worse luck than this kid has had over the last several years,” White said.

Cruz, who’s a frequent analyst during FUEL TV’s live-event broadcasts, hasn’t given a timetable for his return. White also isn’t sure of one, though he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he’s hopeful Cruz will be back this summer in time to fight this weekend’s Barao-McDonald winner.

“We expect him to come back,” White said. “Everything is going as well as can be expected, and hopefully he comes back soon. But that’s really all I can say.”

For more on UFC on FUEL TV 7, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Dominick Cruz)