The anticipated featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor finally has a date.
Aldo and McGregor will meet on Dec. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.
The UFC confirmed Tuesday the event will be UFC 194.
Last month it was reported that Aldo-McGregor could potentially take place at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas.
“If you would have asked me [last week], I would have told you for sure we were going to Dallas Cowboys Stadium,” White told Iole.
Aldo and McGregor were originally scheduled to headline UFC 189 last month, however a rib injury forced Aldo to pull out of the event. Instead, McGregor beat Chad Mendes to become the interim champion.
Had Aldo-McGregor taken place in a stadium, there was a strong chance Ronda Rousey would have been featured on the card. However, since the title unification bout is being held in Las Vegas, Rousey will appear on a different card. She is scheduled to fight rival Miesha Tate for a third time, but no date or location has been announced.
“That fight isn’t going to be on the [Aldo-McGregor] card, for sure,” White explained. “If we were going to go to Dallas Cowboys Stadium, that’s another story, but the MGM really wanted [Aldo-McGregor] and they made a huge effort for it and they got it. And it works out better for us to be in Las Vegas.”
Aldo (25-1) improved to 15-0 under the Zuffa banner but hasn’t fought since earning a unanimous decision win over Mendes in a thrilling bout at UFC 179 last October. McGregor (18-2) has quickly become one of the faces of the UFC, amassing a 6-0 record in the Octagon with five of his victories coming by way of TKO.
