A long awaited faceoff between Conor McGregor and lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov will happen ahead of UFC 229 in October.
On Wednesday, the UFC announced via “UFC Tonight” that an event is being put together for early September that will feature both Nurmagomedov and McGregor in attendance.
Details were sketchy but it was announced as a ‘fan and media’ event so it’s unclear if it will just be a press conference or some other sort of gathering but it will be the first time McGregor and Nurmagomedov will come face-to-face before their fight on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov have chirped back and forth at each other over social media and through various interviews but this will be the first time they square off since the mega-event was announced for UFC 229.
The timing of the event may depend on McGregor as he’s expected to relocate his training camp from Ireland to Las Vegas at some time in September. McGregor is expected to finish his last few weeks in Las Vegas while working out of the UFC Performance Institute, which is where he spent much of his time ahead of his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather last August.
In addition to the event to promote the card in September, UFC 229 will feature a ticketed weigh-in at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas a day ahead of the card on Oct. 6. Details on how fans will be able to procure tickets will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Finally it was also reported that UFC 229 ticket sales have been going rather well with the event already expected to surpass the biggest UFC event ever held in Nevada. The largest gate is currently UFC 200 with more than $10.7 million in ticket sales.
Ticket sales are in such demand that UFC president Dana White also added that there will be no comps given away to any celebrities or anybody else hoping to attend the event for free. White claims that even UFC owners Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell are even purchasing their tickets, although that’s highly unlikely considering they are typically set at a separate table cage side.
The attendance record will also be set by UFC 229 according to the report via “UFC Tonight”, although total numbers won’t be reported until after the event in October.
Expect plenty more information to come for UFC 229 in the coming weeks as Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor draws nearer.
