UFC 206 gets new headliner: Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis for interim title, Conor McGregor stripped of featherweight

UFC 206 will have a headlining title fight, after all.

Earlier this week, the planned main event was scrapped when light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier (18-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) suffered an injury and was forced out of his title fight and rematch with Anthony Johnson (22-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC).

Today, the organization announced Max Holloway (16-3 MMA, 12-3) and Anthony Pettis (19-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC), who were previously announced for the card, have been promoted to the headlining slot, and it comes with bigger stakes: an interim belt. MMAFighting.com first reported the new UFC 206 headliner.

UFC 206 takes place Dec. 10 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, and the main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

With Holloway vs. Pettis now slated for the interim belt, reigning interim titleholder Jose Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has been promoted to the main title, and primary 145-pound titleholder Conor McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC), who also recently won the lightweight belt, has been stripped of the featherweight belt. The changes were made official on the UFC Fight Night 101 broadcast on FS1.

The situation was first reported by MMAFighting.com‘s Ariel Helwani.

Holloway is No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, and Pettis is No. 10.

Holloway looks for his 10th straight win after topping the likes of Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira and Jeremy Stephens. In his most recent outing, the 24-year-old Hawaiian scored a decision victory over Ricardo Lamas at UFC 199. His 11 career victories in UFC-featherweight competition are a company record.

Pettis, meanwhile, is a former UFC and WEC lightweight champion who recently ended a three-fight losing streak, which included a title loss to Rafael dos Anjos and subsequent decision defeats to Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza. The 29-year-old then moved down to featherweight and recently scored a submission victory over Charles Oliveira at UFC on FOX 21.

The UFC 206 card now includes:

• Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis – for interim featherweight title
• Matt Brown vs. Donald Cerrone
• Dooho Choi vs. Cub Swanson
• Tim Kennedy vs. Kelvin Gastelum
• Emil Meek vs. Jordan Mein
• Misha Cirkunov vs. Nikita Krylov
• Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Drew Dober
• Valerie Letourneau vs. Viviane Pereira
• John Makdessi vs. Lando Vannata
• Rustam Khabilov vs. Jason Saggo
• Mitch Gagnon vs. Matthew Lopez
• Zach Makovsky vs. Dustin Ortiz

For more on UFC 206, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.