Despite missing out on a light heavyweight title bout, the UFC is awarding their New Jersey faithful by giving UFC 169 in Newark a double main event, with both fights having championship gold on the line.

Dominick Cruz, after being on the shelf for two years, will unify the UFC bantamweight title when he takes on interim champ Renan Barao.

Additionally, featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo will defend his strap against long-time dark horse contender Ricardo Lamas. Newsday first reported the matchmaking on Tuesday evening.

Back-to-back ACL tears have kept Cruz out of the cage since October 2011, when he successfully defended his bantamweight title against the current flyweight champ, Demetrious Johnson.

To put things into perspective, the UFC’s flyweight division didn’t even exist when Cruz and Johnson squared off.

In Cruz’s absence, Brazilian sensation Renan Barao has had no problem filling the void, boasting an incredible 32-fight unbeaten streak with wins inside the Octagon over the likes of Brad Pickett, Urijah Faber, Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland.

Meanwhile, Aldo hasn’t had much trouble dominating his division either, winning 16 fights in a row dating back to May 2006.

“Scarface” is pretty close to cleaning out his division, owning decisive wins over Cub Swanson, Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar and Chan Sung Jung.

Nevertheless, Lamas has been on a tear since dropping down to featherweight, winning four-straight bouts, with the latter three all being top ranked contenders at the time.

“The Bully” presents an interesting stylistic matchup for Aldo, given his high-level takedowns and brutal ground-and-pound.

The UFC initially announced that UFC 169, which takes place at the Prudential Center on February 1, would be headlined by a 205-pound title fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira.

However, UFC President Dana White stated that the announcement by the company’s public relations teams was premature and the promotion had other plans in the works.