The battle for lightweight division supremacy will finally go down on Saturday, October 24 as UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov faces UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje.
UFC President Dana White revealed the date during an interview with CNN’s Don Riddell.
“It’s going to happen, tell you right here right now. That fight is going to happen,” White said (via Mike Heck of MMA Fighting). “Khabib vs. Gaethje, October 24.”
Nurmagomedov (28-0-0) is making the third defense of his championship, previously defending it against Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. Nurmagomedov is competing in his second straight title unification bout, as the fighter against Poirier at UFC 242 was a unification fight. Nurmagomedov is headlining his fourth straight UFC pay-per-view card and it has been almost three years since the last time Nurmagomedov didn’t headline an event.
Gaethje (22-2-0) became the UFC Interim Lightweight Champion with a fifth round TKO win over former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson at UFC 249. Nurmagomedov is also a former WSOF Lightweight Champion, defeating Richard Patishnock at the WSOF 8 to claim the gold. Gaethje has competed a total of twenty four times as a professional MMA fighter and just two of those bouts went the distance.
UFC 255 takes place on Saturday, October 24 from a location to be announced with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
