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10th October 2018
09:44am BST

They followed up an impressive debut with an equally as good fight card in 2017 as Georges St. Pierre returned from a lengthy lay-off to defeat Michael Bisping for the middleweight strap. Indeed, UFC 217 will go down as one of the most legendary events in the company's history as three world title changed hands.
2018's MSG even however has proved to be one of the more difficult cards to fill.
First of all we had the announcement of Nate Diaz's return against streaking lightweight Dustin Poirier. Given the popularity of both men and Diaz rise as a genuine star following his fights with Conor McGregor, it was thought that maybe this would go down as a main-event.
https://twitter.com/DustinPoirier/status/1044782164733284357
However, the UFC's refusal to put a non-title main event stopped this form happening. This in turn led to both fighters angling for the match to be elevated into the main event slot for the inaugural 165lb belt.
https://twitter.com/NateDiaz209/status/1045509133816852480
Dana White stood firm and refused to bow down to the fighter's demands.
Growing discomfort prompted panic from the UFC. This lead to the organisation announcing a women's flyweight title main event in Valentina Shevchenko vs Sijara Eubanks.
https://twitter.com/SandhuMMA/status/1047197857445568514
The announcement had fans vying for blood giving the fact that most had not heard of Eubanks, and many were anticipating Shevchenko facing Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacant title at UFC 231.
This fight has now been pulled, and the UFC has finally found their main event.
https://twitter.com/bokamotoESPN/status/1049762555869057024
Derrick Lewis, fresh off his comeback knockout win over Alexander Volkov, will now challenge Daniel Cormier for the heavyweight title at UFC 230 in Madison Square Garden.
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1049784561809408000
It has been a couple of very fruitful days for 'The Black Beast'. Following his devastating knockout win, he gave a memorable interview with Joe Rogan where he claimed to have taken his shorts off because "his balls were hot". The interview help him gain over 500,000 instagram followers and now he gets a much wanted title shot.
Not a bad few days for Derrick Lewis.
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