Wish granted: Jorge Masvidal, Stephen Thompson meet at UFC 217 in NYC

They both wanted it, and now top welterweight contenders Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson have got their wish for a showdown at UFC 217 in November.

Masvidal (32-12 MMA, 9-5 UFC) today announced that he and Thompson (13-2-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC) will meet at the event, and multiple sources have since confirmed the contest with both MMA Fighting and ESPN.

UFC 217 takes place Nov. 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass, though the bout order hasn’t been finalized.

Masvidal, No. 9 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, is coming off a disappointing defeat to Demian Maia in a No. 1 contender fight at UFC 211 in May. The split-decision loss snapped a three-fight winning streak for “Gamebred,” who is 4-3 since he moved up to the welterweight division in July 2015.

No. 2-ranked Thompson, meanwhile, return to the scene of where he two-fight championship series with current divisional kingpin Tyron Woodley began. After putting together a seven-fight winning streak, “Wonderboy” fought to a majority draw with Woodley at UFC 205 in November. The pair had a rematch four months later at UFC 209 in March, but Thompson again fell short of the gold when he dropped a majority decision.

The latest UFC 217 lineup now includes:

• Champ Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre – for middleweight title
• Champ Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw – for bantamweight title
• Paulo Borrachinha vs. Johny Hendricks
• Curtis Blaydes vs. Aleksei Oleinik
• Corey Anderson vs. Patrick Cummins
• Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Ion Cutelaba
• Ricardo Ramos vs. Aiemann Zahabi
• Jorge Masvidal vs. Stephen Thompson

For more on UFC 217, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.