It took millions and years of lobbying for November 12th to become a reality for the UFC. On that night, the promotion will make its New York debut at Madison Square Garden.
MMA had been banned in New York since 1997. The fall of state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, who earlier this year was sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption charges, facilitated the legalisation of the sport. Silver had long been a roadblock to MMA's legalisation in New York.
Speaking on Fox Sport's broadcast of the World Series on Friday night, Dana White called the event, the 'biggest, baddest card we've ever done in the history of the company.'
The card has three title fights. Joanna Jędrzejczyk puts her strawweight belt on the line against fellow Pole Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson will try to take Tyron Woodley's welterweight title in the co-main event.
The main event is Conor McGregor's attempt to make history as he takes on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title. The Irishman could become the first fighter in the promotion's history to simultaneously hold belts in different weight divisions.
Another mark of the event's appeal is that, according to Dana White, UFC 205 has already broken the Madison Square Garden gate record.
We've been in all the biggest, best arenas all over the world — Madison Square Garden's a big deal.
All the legendary fights that have been held there, all the legendary events and we actually broke the gate record for Madison Square Garden so, so far so good, I'm excited.
The previous record for MSG was $13.5m for Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis in 1999.
It is the card which White and Co. wanted UFC 200 to be. November 12th will also break the UFC's own gate record set five-and-a-half years ago for Georges St-Pierre vs Jake Shields at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
Obviously, our first time going into MSG and it's been such a big deal getting in there, I wanted to make sure when we went to New York, we delivered. Three incredible title fights plus the rest of the card is packed with ridiculous fights including the main and co-main event on FOX Sports 1 that night for the prelims.
