McGregor-Alvarez to headline UFC 205

Eddie Alvarez will defend his lightweight strap for the first time when he faces Conor McGregor in the UFC 205 headliner at MSG in NYC.

Eddie Alvarez will defend his lightweight strap for the first time when he faces Conor McGregor in the UFC 205 headliner at MSG in NYC.

Published on Tuesday, 9/27/16, at 1:33 a.m. Eastern.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s debut in New York City at Madison Square Garden for UFC 205 on Nov. 12 needed a jolt, and that’s exactly what it was given late Monday night when it was announced that Conor McGregor will take on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight championship.

Alvarez won the belt by defeating Rafael dos Anjos by first-round knockout at UFC Fight Night 90 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on July 7. It was his third consecutive victory after losing his UFC debut to Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone by unanimous decison at UFC 178. After that setback, Alvarez won a pair of split decisions over Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis to earn his title shot.

McGregor won the featherweight title by earning a first-round KO win over Jose Aldo in only 13 seconds at UFC 194. It was his eighth straight victory since joining the UFC, so he requested and was granted a shot at Rafael dos Anjos’s 155-pound title at UFC 196.

However, RDA pulled out of the fight two weeks out due to a foot injury. Therefore, Nate Diaz took the fight against ‘The Notorious’ on short notice. The bout was set at welterweight and Diaz pulled the upset by earning a second-round submission win over McGregor.

Next, McGregor insisted on a rematch with Diaz. Since McGregor is making the promotion more money than any other previous fighter in the history of the sport, his wish was granted again.

Although it had to be pushed back to UFC 202 when McGregor refused to show up at a UFC 200 presser, the fight still took place. McGregor won a majority decision over Diaz in a back-and-forth war.

Dana White went to great lengths to express his desire for McGregor to go back down to featherweight to give Aldo a rematch. Those wishes have continued to come from White as recently as the last few days, but it’s clear that McGregor has more power than any other fighter in MMA history.

And it’s also now clear that UFC 205 has become a monster. It was also feature a welterweight title fight with Tyron Woodley facing Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.

The lightweight loop’s No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov took to twitter to express his understandable unhappiness with the situation:

As of early this morning, Bovada had McGregor installed as a -160 favorite, while Alvarez was listed as the +130 underdog.

Here are additional odds for other fights on the UFC 205 card below, which list each fighter and its best available number at a certain book:


UFC 205 odds - BestFightOdds

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