McGregor returns to octagon in October
Conor McGregor will return to mixed martial arts on October 6 in Las Vegas for a title bout against UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“The fight is done,” UFC president Dana White said.
McGregor (21-3) simultaneously held the featherweight and lightweight championship belts during his meteoric UFC career, but he hasn’t fought in MMA since taking the lightweight belt from Eddie Alvarez in November 2016. The loquacious Irishman hasn’t competed at all since losing his lucrative boxing match against Floyd Mayweather in August last year, and his UFC lightweight title was stripped and subsequently claimed by Nurmagomedov in April.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov will meet in the main event of the UFC 229 pay-per-view show at T-Mobile Arena, the same spot where Mayweather stopped McGregor in the 10th round of their one-sided prize fight.
McGregor has also resolved his legal troubles after throwing a trolley at a bus containing UFC fighters during a one-man rampage last April at Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre. Nurmagomedov was the intended target of McGregor’s wrath after a previous spat between the fighters’ camps.
Nurmagomedov (26-0), who wasn’t actually on the bus, won the vacant lightweight belt by beating Al Iaquinta in Brooklyn two days after McGregor’s attack, which injured uninvolved fighters Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg.
McGregor was arrested, but was sentenced last month to perform five days of community service, avoiding jail time in a plea deal.
Nurmagomedov, the Dagestanborn Russian champion, has been one of the pound-for-pound greats of MMA when healthy, racking up 10 consecutive victories since joining the UFC.
Nurmagomedov is a formidable challenger for McGregor in a return from a 23-month break in MMA competition, but McGregor has never backed down from a challenge.
Negotiations for this bout dragged on for many weeks while McGregor argued a highly lucrative deal even demanding an ownership stake in the UFC in exchange for returning to the cage, and Nurmagomedov also asked for a hefty raise.
White didn’t disclose terms of the deal that was reached.