A date has been set for the title unification bout between Irish superstar and interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor and undisputed featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
Contrary to rumors the fight would take place on Dec. 5 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and would feature a co-main event of Rousey-Tate 3, UFC President Dana White told Yahoo Sports earlier this week that the fight will in fact go down at UFC 194 on Dec.12 at the MGM Grand – sans Rousey.
White had been adamant in passing weeks about staging a stadium sized event similar to UFC 100 that would showcase the UFC’s two biggest stars in McGregor and Rousey on the same card and was in talks to do so until recently, telling Yahoo Sports, “If you would have asked me, I would have told you for sure we were going to Dallas Cowboys Stadium.”
However; White said, MGM Resort officials “moved heaven and earth” to stage the event, albeit were unable to commit to the intended date of Dec. 5 due to an Andrea Bocelli concert.
For those living under a rock, Aldo vs. McGregor was expected to be one of the biggest UFC events in history, with the organization pouring millions of dollars into a promotional parade that saw both fighters embark on an eight city media tour, spanning several countries, in effort to build anticipation for the fight.
Things would derail for the promotion just weeks out however; when Aldo suffered a rib injury in training forcing him to withdraw, and the UFC to find a last minute replacement whom they found in Chad Mendes.
Mendes would come up short, losing the fight via TKO in the second round – again – setting up the highly anticipated showdown between Aldo and McGregor.
Though no other fights have yet been announced, the originally scheduled fight, prior to Aldo’s exit and which featured a co-main event of Rory Macdonald vs. Robbie Lawler for the welterweight belt, was projected by UFC President Dana White to sell north of 1 million PPV’s.
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