The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its debut in New York state Saturday with an action-packed card led by fighter Conor McGregor’s historic win.
McGregor, the UFC’s featherweight champion, knocked out lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez via a second-round TKO to become the first fighter in history to hold two titles simultaneously.
The event was the first UFC card to take place in New York since the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo in April signed into legislation a bill lifting the long-running ban of mixed martial arts events in New York.
The UFC 205 event was expected to return one of the biggest pay-per-view event performances of the year, although at press time neither the UFC nor industry executives had released PPV buy and revenue figures for the event. The UFC has scheduled two PPV events in December, including a Dec. 30 event featuring the return of former UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey to the Octagon, more than a year after her November 2015 loss to Holly Holm.
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The Dec. 10 UFC 206 PPV event will feature a rematch between light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson, according to the organization.
Saturday's UFC card was also the second of three big PPV events in November, following the Nov. 5 Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas fight and preceding this Saturday's Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward light heavyweight championship boxing event.
