It’s champion versus champion as Conor McGregor challenges Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at UFC 205

THE UFC title fight the world wanted to see is finally official.

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will challenge 155lb champion Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title in the main event of UFC 205 in New York City.

 

Alvarez and McGregor have long been linked with the main event slot at Madison Square Garden, but doubts were cast over the matchup being made when it was revealed the UFC were looking to match Alvarez with Russian contender Khabib Nurmagomedov instead.

But it seems all the issues have been ironed out and the UFC’s maiden event at the iconic Madison Square Garden will now feature as its main event a champion versus champion clash between two of the most exciting fighters in the UFC.

Alvarez (28 wins, 4 losses) is a former Bellator champion and the current undisputed UFC champ at 155lbs.

He took the title in his most recent outing, at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas in July, with a devastating first-round TKO finish of the previously dominant champion Rafael dos Anjos at the MGM Grand.

Per Haljestam

And after that victory he wasted no time in calling for a fight with McGregor, telling the media at the post-fight press conference that he wanted a “gimme fight” with the Dubliner.

Hailing dos Anjos as “the best in the division” Alvarez said: “To be able to come out with a win over him and before him was (Anthony) Pettis, before him was Gilbert (Melendez).

Per Haljestam

“These are the best guys in the division. I’m not taking on top 15 guys.

“I would ask Dana White please to give me an easier fight like Conor McGregor. I deserve that.

“I’ve been fighting the best guys. I would like a gimme fight. So, Conor? I more than welcome that.”

McGregor (20 wins, 3 losses), meanwhile, knocked out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds to capture the UFC’s featherweight crown last December, then – after a title fight with dos Anjos fell through due to injury – he took on Nate Diaz in two of the most watched UFC fights of all time, losing the first, then coming back to get his revenge in the second in back-to-back welterweight classics.

Now set to make his UFC lightweight debut at what many believe to be his best weight class, McGregor looks to become the first athlete to hold UFC titles in two weight classes simultaneously by capturing the 155lb belt at UFC 205.

Getty Images

UFC legends Randy Couture (light-heavyweight and heavyweight) and BJ Penn (lightweight and welterweight) have both held UFC titles in two weight classes, but nobody has held two concurrently.

If McGregor is victorious on November 12, he’ll make history as the first to do so.

Dolly Clew / Cage Warriors

The bout tops off a stellar card of fights set for the UFC’s first event in New York state since UFC 7 back in 1995 in Buffalo.

The sport of MMA was a much more crude spectacle then than it is today, and the sport was banned in New York – as it was across the US – shortly after that event.

It took a complete transformation of the UFC, plus nearly two decades of lobbying, to get the sport legalised in the state once again, with New York the last state to accept mixed martial arts as a legitimate sport.

Twitter: @TheGarden

The Garden awaits: The iconic Madison Square Garden will play host to UFC 205 on November 12[/caption]

But now MMA is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, with the UFC now the most expensive sports franchise on the planet, with their recent $4.4billion sale eclipsing Forbes’ valuations of the world’s biggest sports franchises, including Manchester United, the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys.

And on one of the most historic days for the UFC, the sport lands in The Big Apple with a card packed with some of the best the UFC has to offer.

The event features an unprecedented THREE world title fights, with the Alvarez-McGregor contest joined by a welterweight title bout between newly-crowned champion Tyron Woodley and fast-rising star and top contender Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.

Women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will also look to defend her title when she takes on fellow Polish fighter Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

Getty Images

Former UFC world champions Chris Weidman, Frankie Edgar, Miesha Tate and Rashad Evans are also set for action on one of the most stacked fight cards of the year.