It was already rumored to be happening and now it’s been made official – UFC superstar Conor McGregor will return to action against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in Las Vegas on October 6th.
The announcement was made yesterday by Dana White at a special UFC 25th Anniversary press conference in Los Angeles ahead of UFC 227, but neither McGregor nor Nurmagomedov was in attendance.
This will be McGregor’s first fight in two years since narrowly edging to a majority decision victory over Nate Diaz in their record-breaking rematch at UFC 202 in August of 2016.
He has fought since then, but not in the Octagon, instead opting to undertake his boxing debut last year against the best boxer of his generation, Floyd Mayweather, leading to a 10th round TKO loss.
As for Nurmagomedov, he’s fought three times during the Irish superstar’s absence from the Octagon, submitting Michael Johnson, convincingly defeating Edson Barboza by decision and then claiming the vacant lightweight title against short-notice replacement Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 back in April.
Just days prior to that fight McGregor and his entourage showed up in Brookyln, New York City where the event was taking place and attacked a fighter bus that Nurmagomedov was in, with ‘the Notorious’ going as far as to throw a steel dolly through one of the windows.
Later he revealed this act of hooliganism was in relaliation for Nurmagomedov and his team surrounding his sparring partner Artem Lobov in a hotel lobby.
McGregor has managed to escape a jail sentence for the attack, but the bad blood between Nurmagomedov and McGregor is now at fever pitch and Dana White stated yesterday that he believes the showdown between them at UFC 229 will prove to be the biggest in UFC history.
