Conor McGregor Opens Up As The Favorite Over Eddie Alvarez At UFC 205
To the surprise of some, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has opened up as the favorite in the UFC 205 main event.
According to Bovada, McGregor is a slight favorite, opening up at -150. His opponent – the UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez – is opening up at +120. Of course, these odds will likely fluctuate over the next couple of months leading up to their historic fight on November 12.
If McGregor comes out victorious at UFC 205, then he’ll become the first person to ever hold a UFC championship in two separate divisions simultaneously. Yes, even though he hasn’t defended the featherweight title since he won it a little over nine months ago, the UFC hasn’t forced him to relinquish the title. But, according to Fox Sports, the UFC may force McGregor to relinquish one of his two titles if he wins on November 12, unless, of course, he’s able to convince him that he’ll be able to handle being a champion in two different weight classes.
Win, lose, or draw, if McGregor decides to defeat his featherweight title after the Madison Square Garden show, he’ll have to defend it against Jose Aldo, who earned the No. 1 contender spot after he defeated Frankie Edgar at this past summer’s UFC 200. Of course, McGregor knocked Aldo out in just 13 seconds to win the featherweight title in December of last year, and Aldo has been looking for a rematch ever since.
If McGregor decides to stay at lightweight, he’ll have a ton of challengers lined up, the first of which will probably be Khabib Nurmagomedov, who reacted to the announcement of McGregor vs. Alvarez by posting an update on his Instagram, where he called the UFC a “freakshow.”
If the UFC 205 card wasn’t already stacked enough (you can check out the announced card below), Dana White announced on Tuesday’s SportsCenter that he’s working on adding Khabib vs. fellow lightweight contender Michael Johnson to the MSG card, and if Khabib wins, he’ll likely get the next lightweight title shot.
As previously mentioned, here’s the announced fights for UFC 205:
- Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez (lightweight championship)
- Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson (welterweight championship)
- Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (women’s strawweight championship)
- Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero
- Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington
- Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
It’s been many years since the UFC has had three championship fights on one card. Of course, this card is subject to change, as someone could get hurt leading up to November 12, but if everyone is able to stay healthy, this will end up being the most stacked card in UFC history, and it’ll have a shot to break the all-time pay-per-view buys record.
Before the McGregor vs. Alvarez fight was announced, Dana White sent out a tweet that said that McGregor wouldn’t be fighting at Madison Square Garden this coming November because he was suffering from a leg injury. Almost immediately after, ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto released the following statement: “According to sources close to McGregor, Conor is ‘fine’ and the leg would not prevent him from fighting at UFC 205.”
ALVAREZ vs MCGREGOR!!! #UFC205 presser at 6pm ET at @TheGarden and live on https://t.co/99zVgTP3Vt!!! pic.twitter.com/NvJEtpbloQ
— danawhite (@danawhite) September 27, 2016
As it turns out, McGregor is, in fact, fine, and he’ll get his opportunity to become the UFC’s very first double champion. The fight between Alvarez and McGregor could be a fight of the year candidate because both men rarely have a boring fight.
According to CBS Sports, the UFC is considering adding a few more fights to the UFC 205 card. So expect them to announce some new fights at some point in the near future. But, if they leave the card as it is, it’ll easily be the most stacked card of the year and possibly the most stacked card of all-time.
[Featured Image by Isaac Brekken/AP Images]
