UFC on Versus 6, which emanated from the Verizon Center on Oct. 1, 2011, in Washington, D.C., featured a championship fight on free television for the first time since 2007 with bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz putting his belt on the line against Demetrious Johnson.

They may have been forgotten by the promotion in terms of marketing and lacked any clear and present hype, but the fight was almost guaranteed to deliver excitement.

And that's exactly what it did.

Cruz and Johnson battled back-and-forth for five long rounds, gutting their way through an absolute war of attrition that ultimately saw Cruz retain his title -- and suffer a broken hand in the process.

"The Dominator" tells ESPN that he has no options outside of surgery:

"It's basically the exact same injury I had on my left hand. Same knuckle, same everything. The tendon is completely ripped off the bone and my finger is popping out of its socket due to that. And the knuckle just dislocates when I make a fist. I have to get that tendon that ripped reattached with surgery. After I got the surgery on my left hand the doctor said it would be stronger. And it's true. It is stronger," Cruz said. "He put an extra piece of tendon over the top of the knuckle so it's braced for impact. He did some voodoo stuff with it that he drilled a hole through the knuckle and tied it so tight that there's no way for that tendon to lift back up off the bone again. I really feel like it's stronger than it was in the first place and I won't have any issues with it anymore."

Cruz is on the shelf until 2012 when he will likely defend his 135-pound title against the winner of Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles, who are scheduled to hook 'em up at UFC 139 next month in San Jose.

Unless you can think of a better option.

How about it Maniacs, what's left for Cruz to do inside the bantamweight division -- other than finish his opponents?