UFC 205: What happened when Conor McGregor challenged Eddie Alvarez for Lightweight Championship?
UFC 205 took place on November 12, 2016 and was undoubtedly the biggest show of that year, even bigger than UFC 200.
The event took place from the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden for the very first time and was the first UFC event to take place in the state of New York since UFC 7, way back in September 1995.
The show was headlined by a title bout between Conor McGregor and Lightweight Champion, Eddie Alvarez.
"Notorious" solidified his legend with a hugely impressive victory over Alvarez. The reigning Featherweight Champion became the first ever dual champion in UFC history with the win.
McGregor put Alvarez down five times and dominated from the start and the bout only lasted a round and a half. McGregor became The Man in MMA with this victory. So much so, that his name transcended the sport and the following year fought a marquee Boxing match with the legendary, Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a contest that was the highest drawing pay per view event ever, with a paying audience of over four million.
In the co-main event, Tyron Woodley survived a tough test versus Stephen Thompson as he managed to successfully defend his Welterweight title.
However, it was one of the most difficult bouts of his career. After five rounds of back and forth action, the judges deliberated for a long time. The eventual decision was a Majority Draw, with one judge calling the bout 48-47 for Woodley.
The fight had everything; solid striking, excellent ground control, solid clinch work and submission attempts.
A draw was perhaps the fair result but obviously resolved little. A rematch between the pair took place at UFC 209, four months later.
Elsewhere, the Women's Strawweight Champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk successfully defended her title versus Karolina Kowalkiewicz in a gruelling five-round contest.
They kicked and punched each other repeatedly in an exhausting fight that earned the pair huge appreciation from the New York crowd. The decision went in favour of Joanna, which was the correct result due to her withstanding less damage and being the slightly more aggressive fighter.
Chris Weidman's hopes of bouncing back from his first career defeat to Luke Rockhold were dashed when he was knocked out by a flying knee and punches courtesy of Yoel Romero. Weidman's future would turn out to be even bleaker unfortunately.
Raquel Pennington earned a shot at the Bantamweight Championship by defeating the former champion, Miesha Tate in an impressive performance.
Pennington just did everything better than the more experienced Tate, outmuscling her, outstriking her and basically outperforming her in every way possible. Tate's face told the story of the fight at the conclusion. The torch had been passed to a younger performer who had finally come of age.
Post-fight, Tate announced her MMA retirement, with a career record of 18-7. One legend's career ended and another one was potentially launched. Unfortunately, Pennington's career would stall after this victory.
That was UFC 205. A stacked show, with close, hard-fought fights. Not the best card the company has ever promoted but a memorable one nonetheless.
UFC 205 pulled a colossal 1.3 million pay per view buys; still one of the highest numbers in company history.