Next month, the biggest and most anticipated fight in the history of the UFC will go down in Las Vegas, Nevada. UFC 229 will be headlined by the return of Conor McGregor as he will challenge the reigning champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight championship.

McGregor captured the lightweight title at UFC 205 when he TKO’d Eddie Alvarez. McGregor, at the time, was the reigning featherweight champ who moved up a weight class to fight the current champ in a super fight. He became the first fighter to win titles in two divisions simultaneously after knocking Alvarez out in the second round at Madison Square Garden in Nov. 2016.

Meanwhile, Nurmagomedov has been going on a tear, yet to lose since entering the UFC. His quest to the belt includes impressive performances that included wins over Rafael Dos Anjos (former champ) and Michael Johnson. After his fight against Edson Barboza in which he won via unanimous decision, he was given the opportunity to fight for the lightweight championship.

Due to inactivity, McGregor had to vacate the lightweight title in Apr. 2018. Shortly after he had won the lightweight belt, he took some time off before defending. His next fight scheduled in Aug. 2017 was not a UFC fight but instead a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. The fight resulted in a TKO victory for Mayweather in the tenth round, but McGregor displayed his boxing skills early on in the fight. This was the first time McGregor had fought since winning the lightweight belt but would not return to the UFC that year.

With the lightweight division being upheld as a result of McGregor’s inactivity, there was an interim championship title fight that featured Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee, two of the top prospects in the division. Ferguson became the interim lightweight champion after he submitted Kevin Lee in a three round war. The winner would be set to fight McGregor to unify the belt, but he still decided he was going to remain inactive and not defend his belt.

In January, the UFC announced that Ferguson would fight the number one contender in the division, Nurmagomedov, for the lightweight belt. Whoever won would become the champion, meaning McGregor would get stripped of his title. Dana White, the president of the UFC said once the fight starts, McGregor is no longer champ of the division anymore.

However, the week of the fight, Ferguson tore his ACL by tripping over a wire during media day, forcing him to withdraw from the fight. With the title on the line the same week, the UFC pulled Al Iaquinta (a ranked lightweight who was on the same fight card) to fight Nurmagomedov as a last-minute replacement. Nurmagomedov won in dominant fashion, out-wrestling and striking Iaquinta for five-straight rounds to become the champion.

In August, it was announced that McGregor would be returning to the UFC to fight Nurmagomedov for the lightweight championship belt. This is deemed to be the biggest fight in the company’s history, with White stating it is projected to sell over two million pay-per-view buys.

The fight will feature Khabib’s first title defense, the return of McGregor, and a highly anticipated fight between two completely different styles of fighters. Will Mcgregor out-strike and knock Khabib out early? Or will Khabib dominate McGregor with his grappling and wrestling and maul him until the fight is over? Find out Oct. 6th!