McGregor will fight in Vegas in October

LOS ANGELES — Conor McGregor will return to mixed martial arts on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., for a title bout against UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The UFC dramatically announced the matchup Friday with a promotional video to close a news conference promoting its slate of fight cards for the rest of 2018.

“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 155-pound lightweight belt from Eddie Alvarez in November 2016. The loquacious Irishman hasn’t competed since losing his lucrative boxing match against Floyd Mayweather in August 2017, 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 prizefight.

McGregor also has resolved his legal troubles after throwing a hand truck at a bus containing UFC fighters during a one-man rampage last April at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. 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. It injured uninvolved fighters Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg, who fights for Albuquerque’s Jackson-Wink MMA. McGregor was arrested, but was sentenced last month to perform five days of community service,.

Nurmagomedov, the Dagestan-born Russian champion, has been one of the pound-forpound greats of MMA when healthy, racking up 10 consecutive wins since joining the UFC.

McGregor and Nurmagomedov weren’t at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles along with the other headlining fighters of the autumn cards, but the announcement of their bout set off wild cheering among the fans.

Earlier in the news conference, the UFC also promoted the long-awaited return of Nate Diaz, who memorably split two bouts with McGregor in 2016. The popular Diaz (19-11) hasn’t fought since that majoritydecision loss to McGregor in August 2016, but he agreed to fight Dustin Poirier in a lightweight bout in New York at UFC 230 on Nov. 3.