After years of negotiations regarding legality of MMA fighting in the state of New York, the New York state athletics commission finally saw sense and, earlier this year, made the sport of mixed martial arts legal in New York.
The UFC worked fast with Madison Square Garden arena to set a date of November 12th for a UFC 205 super card. The big name on everyone’s tongue for the card is Irish featherweight champion Connor McGregor. UK bookmakers are ready to price up a potential match between him and lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and above all other exciting match-ups, this is the fight people want to see.
After being pulled from the UFC 200 card for not showing up to a media press conference, McGregor made it clear that he wanted to be on that New York east coast card. An 8-hour flight for his fans is far more manageable than Las Vegas and the Dublin native has made no secret of the fact that he wants to fight closer to home as often as possible. The almost fabled title defense at Croke Park stadium seems a long way off, but a super fight in Manhattan has a terrific ring to it.
There are a few potential hiccups to the match-up however. The first being the fact that McGregor has the 145lb division on pause. He KO’d Jose Aldo in 13 seconds back in December and is yet to defend that belt. UFC president Dana White has been steadfast and bull-headed in his stance that he needs to either defend or drop that belt before considering a title fight at 155lb. So that’s a major obstacle to overcome. Then there’s money. It’s no secret that McGregor is the biggest draw in combat sports right now, but the UFC are famously hard-nosed their negotiations with fighters and McGregor too is not one to accept an offer he isn’t happy with.
Connor McGregor had a five round war with Nate Diaz just a few weeks ago, suffering a foot injury in the process and with such a short turn around, it will be interesting to see if he can recover on time, as well as prepare for Alvarez, in the two months we have left before UFC 205 in Madison Square Gardens.
There are still many moving parts in terms of the main card for UFC 205. It looks like Tyron Woodley will defend his welterweight belt against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Chris Weidman Vs Yoel Romero is signed and sealed, while Donald Cowboy Cerrone has a great matchup booked against Kevin Gastulum.
Frankie Edgar is sure to get a spot on the card, probably against Jeremy Stephens, but whatever happens on this main card, it’ll be a lesser event if Connor McGregor and the UFC can’t agree terms and get this lightweight title fight announced in the next week or so.