Mark the date people. Although the UFC have yet to officially confirm it, it's a done deal according to reports.
March 5th, in Vegas once again, and Conor McGregor will take on Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight title at UFC 197. Although the final bout agreements have not yet been signed, the rumours of a move to the top of the lightweight division are now confirmed to be true.
Not only that, Irish fans travelling over the Vegas for the bout will also get the chance to see a much discussed co-main event with Holly Holm taking to the Octagon for the first time since that KO win over Ronda Roussey as she takes on Miesha Tate ahead of a possible rematch with the deposed queen of MMA.
The news originally broke via Bleacher Report's Jeremy Botter. That has since been corroborated by a number of other sources and although we'll look forward to all the bells and whistles when Dana White and co. officially announce the bout we can wrap this one up as done and dusted. And that means there's less than two months to wait to see if McGregor can become a double world champion.
While the MGM Grand has been the setting for most of McGregor's big nights so far, there is a possibility that this one could be switched to the Mandalay Bay, although the MGM is still very much a possibility.
All this follows recent confirmation from Dana White that the Dubliner would be given the chance to become the first UFC fighter to hold belts in two different weight classes and defend them simultaneously. Randy Couture and BJ Penn are the only fighters to have claimed titles in more than one weight class and it had been thought that the UFC's matchmakers were keen to ensure that champions moving up in weight would have to vacate their belt.
Not so in this case. The money is there to be made and McGregor, just like he's said, is simply too important to be asked to vacate that featherweight belt that he's worked so hard for.
Nonetheless a straight shot at the lightweight belt is a staggering realisation of what the Dubliner has been able to do in his seven UFC fights. Skipping the entire division to take on the champion would, in almost every other case, be an impossibility.
Not so this time around and while we're all excited about the possibility of seeing McGregor holding both belts, he certainly could have taken a more leisurely route to the top. Since his defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in April 2014, the Brazilian has been extremely impressive. His KO of Benson Henderson in August of that year put him back in the mix up for a title shot and when that came against Anthony Pettis at UFC 185, he was supremely impressive in grinding out a unanimous decision victory.
The first round KO of Donald Cerrone less than a month ago is all the proof that's needed of Dos Anjos' ability but, as McGregor has said, he's not in the business of sidestepping fights. He wants to get to the very top as quickly as possible and seeing this fight scheduled for March 5th is the ultimate realisation of that.
