Alvarez vs. McGregor at UFC 205

UFC president Dana White appeared late Monday night on ESPN’s SportsCenter and announced that lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez would defend his title vs. featherweight champion Conor McGregor. And the pair would fight in the main event of UFC 205, the UFC’s triumphant return to New York, following a multi-million dollar battle to get the sport regulated in the Empire State.

The fight is already a triumph for McGregor, who is intent upon historical greatness. UFC management long insisted he had to defend his featherweight belt against interim champion Jose Aldo. Only two fighters have held belts in two weight divisions – BJ Penn and Randy Couture. McGregor wants to become the first fighter to hold two belts at the same time.

He will get his shot on November 12, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.

McGregor won the featherweight championship by knocking out former champion Jose Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194 on December 12, 2015. He was scheduled to fight then lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos on March 5, 2016, but less than two weeks beforehand, the Brazilian pulled out with an injured foot.

Nate Diaz took the fight on 11 days notice, and beat McGregor, tapping him in the first. A rematch was made for UFC 202 on August 20, with McGregor winning a majority decision. In the meantime, Aldo went on to win the interim title with a unanimous decision over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 on July 9.

Alvarez came to the UFC as the Bellator MMA lightweight champion and lost his league debut to Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone via unanimous decision. He then beat Gilbert Melendez via split decision. Next, he beat Anthony Pettis also by split decision. And then in a title fight with then-champion dos Anjos, he got a KO in the very first round.

With the latest edition, UFC 205 is now the greatest card in league history, with three title bouts.

Eddie Alvarez (c) vs. Conor McGregor
Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson
Joanna Jędrzejczyk (c) vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz [c]
Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero
Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington
Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
Tim Kennedy vs. Rashad Evans
Tim Boetsch vs. Rafael Natal
Lightweight Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves
Lyman Good vs. Belal Muhammad
Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian