UFC 197 is now official for March 5 in Las Vegas, with two major fights in Conor McGregor vs. Rafael dos Anjos and Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate topping the event.
The UFC made the announcement on Tuesday, confirming reports from last week.
McGregor will attempt to become the first ever simultaneous dual champion in the UFC, taking on dos Anjos for the Lightweight Title after he knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to take the Featherweight Championship at UFC 194 last month. The Irishman has become the new biggest star in the sport in a relatively short amount of time, and rides a 15-fight winning streak into his next biggest career matchup.
Should McGregor win, he’ll join B.J. Penn and Randy Couture as the only fighters to be champion in two different divisions in the UFC.
Brazil’s dos Anjos will attempt to stop McGregor from making history after he became a surprise champion in 2015. He dominated Anthony Pettis for five rounds to take the title in March before destroying Donald Cerrone last month at UFC on Fox 17 in his first title defense, and he may have been the most dangerous of the options available for McGregor’s next fight.
As for Holm-Tate, the new UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion is taking a risk by defending the title before a big money rematch with Ronda Rousey, from whom she took that belt in November. That rematch was tentatively expected for UFC 200 in July, and could still be in the plans should the undefeated Holm take out Tate, who enters her second shot at a UFC Title on a four-fight winning streak, most recently defeating Jessica Eye last July.
Tickets for the event, which will come to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, go on sale to the public next Friday, January 22.
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So they’re giving a title shot to a guy who not only has never fought in said weight class in the UFC — he also hasn’t even yet defended the belt he won!
All because he’s currently a popular fighter.
Maybe they should rename themselves WWUFC.
Maybe you should just keep saying the same thing over and over and over because we don’t know how you really feel yet.
I am perfectly content to watch the WWUFC, heck, I’ll pay to do so.
I like how you insult him for doing what you’re so good at doing yourself.
Don’t lie. You didn’t like it, you loved it.