Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor title unification bout set for Dec. 12 in Las Vegas

Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor

The highly anticipated UFC featherweight championship title unification bout is set.

Champion Jose Aldo and interim titleholder Conor McGregor will finally have their long-awaited grudge match on Dec. 12. Yahoo! Sports first reported the news.

The event, likely to be UFC 194, is set to take place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. The main card will air on pay-per-view.

Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) were scheduled to fight for the 145-pound belt at UFC 189 on July 11. However, “Scarface” was forced out of the contest less than two weeks before the event when he suffered a rib injury in training.

Chad Mendes replaced Aldo in the contest and lost to McGregor via second-round TKO in an interim title matchup. The original fight was billed as one of the biggest in UFC history, but it didn’t go down due to Aldo’s injury.

Fortunately, McGregor won and set up what will arguably be an even more significant showdown with Aldo, which was originally discussed for what would be a record-setting event at Dallas’ AT&T Stadium.

A women’s bantamweight matchup between champion Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate was also mentioned as a possibility for the same card as Aldo vs. McGregor, however, White said that will no longer be the case.

“That fight isn’t going to be on the [Aldo-McGregor] card, for sure,” White said. “If we were going to go to Dallas Cowboys Stadium, that’s another story, but the MGM really wanted the fight and they made a huge effort for it and they got it. And it works out better for us to be in Las Vegas.”

Aldo and McGregor exchanged many words prior to UFC 189. McGregor had continued his verbal assault following his interim title win and has said he’s not entirely confident the fight will happen because he feels Aldo is “scared.”

The Brazilian said at a recent Fan Q&A that McGregor’s victory over Mendes changed nothing about his approach to the fight. He said his strategy was set prior to the injury and only minor adjustments will be made when he’s finally locked inside the octagon with “The Notorious.”

“I already had a strategy; the strategy was ready,” Aldo said. “We only canceled the fight two weeks before. The strategy is ready. I think everything we practiced, we saw in Chad’s fight it would work. We have the path set for us and now we just have to enhance it.

For more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.