A rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz is now officially the UFC 200 main event, while Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo will rematch for the interim featherweight title.
Conor McGregor and Frankie Edgar will be fighting at UFC 200, just not against each other. The UFC’s featherweight champion will rematch Nate Diaz, again at 170 pounds, in the July 9th pay-per-view headliner at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Meanwhile, Edgar will rematch Jose Aldo for the interim featherweight title, in a fight that wasn’t officially named the co-main event. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani first reported the news before it was announced on FS1’s UFC Tonight.
Diaz (19-10) submitted McGregor(19-3) with a 2nd round rear-nakedd choke in the main event of UFC 196 on March 5th, sending “The Notorious” Irishman to his first career UFC defeat. McGregor was supposed to fight lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in an attempt to become the first simultaneous two-division champ in UFC history, but RDA’s broken foot paved the way for Diaz to step in for a thrilling headliner that reportedly drew 1.5 million buys and generated incredible pre-fight hype on such short notice.
Edgar (20-4-1) has won his last 5 fights, including a stunning 1st round KO of two-time title challenger Chad Mendes in the TUF 22 Finale main event. The former lightweight champion’s only loss at 145 pounds is to Jose Aldo, who beat him by unanimous decision at UFC 156 back in February 2013 to remain the UFC’s featherweight champion. Aldo (25-2) saw his reign atop 145, which dates back to winning the WEC title in 2009, ended in abrupt fashion when McGregor KO’d him in just 13 seconds at UFC 194. Just one year after an Aldo injury prompted the UFC to book at McGregor vs. Mendes interim title, McGregor’s decision to rematch Diaz has led to the UFC making an Edgar vs. Aldo rematch for the interim belt.
The following fights are also set for UFC 200:
Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne
Derek Brunson vs. Gegard Mousasi
Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez
Takanori Gomi vs. Jim Miller
The fact that Edgar vs. Aldo II wasn’t announced as the official co-main event leaves the door open for an actual title fight to be placed on this card, which means we could see at least 3 main card bouts scheduled for 5 rounds.