Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver official as UFC Fight Night 59 headliner

As expected Conor McGregor (16-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) will meet fellow featherweight Dennis Siver (22-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC) in the headliner of a Jan. 18 event in Boston.

MMAjunkie first reported the bout on Thursday, and UFC executives today made the five-rounder official.

The event, expected to be UFC Fight Night 59, takes place at Boston’s TD Garden. The bulk of the card airs on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

The event takes place on a rare Sunday. It’ll follow the NFL’s NFC championship game on FOX.

McGregor is ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings. Siver isn’t ranked.

Although McGregor is in Brazil and was expected to fight the winner of Saturday’s UFC 179 headliner between featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes, he’ll instead stay busy with a fight against Siver, who recently picked up a decision victory over Charles Rosa at UFC Fight Night 53. It halted a two-fight winless streak that included a TKO loss to contender Cub Swanson and a no-contest with Manny Gamburyan (Siver’s decision win was overturned when he failed a post-fight drug test due to human chorionic gonadotropin).

The 35-year-old German fighter now meets McGregor, a former two-division Cage Warriors champion who has both fought and talked his way into UFC title contention following a 4-0 run in the promotion. Under the UFC banner, the 26-year-old Irishman has defeated Marcus Brimage, Max Holloway, Diego Brandao and Dustin Poirier (three of the four via knockout) to push his current winning streak to 12 fights.

UFC Fight Night 59 tickets go on sale Nov. 20.

For more on UFC Fight Night 59, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.