UFC president Dana White confirmed that Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight Michael Johnson at UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor.
Khabib Nurmagomedov will not be fighting reigning UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at Madison Square Garden, but he will still be on the UFC 205 fight card. UFC president Dana White confirmed at today’s press conference that Nurmagomedov will take onMichael Johnson on Saturday, November 12th. White humorously said that he forgot to mention it while answering a media question.
“How the hell did I forget that?” White said.
With Alvarez set to fight Conor McGregor in the night’s main event, White later went on ESPN’s SportsCenter and said that Nurmagomedov (23-0) wanted to fight Michael Johnson (17-10), who’d recently expressed his own interest to fight Khabib on this historic New York City mega-show. As long as the fight doesn’t fall apart, it’ll be the first time Nurmagomedov has fought twice in a calendar year since he fought three times in 2013.
There’s no word on whether or not it will be on the night’s main card (of which only two non-title fights will be on PPV) or the preliminary card.
UFC 205’s other championship fights are a welterweight defense for Tyron Woodley againstStephen Thompson, while Joanna Jedrzejczyk defends her strawweight belt vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz, in an all-Poland matchup.
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