Conor McGregor will get his double-belt shot at UFC’s first New York card

Conor McGregor’s convincing case to pursue his previously delayed bid to simultaneously wear two championship belts officially won over UFC President Dana White on Monday, and McGregor will fight new lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez on Nov. 12 at the organization’s first card in New York.

“We intend to make history and be the first to ever hold two belts at the same time,” McGregor’s Southland-based agent, Audie Attar, texted the Los Angeles Times late Monday night.

White announced on television that McGregor-Alvarez will be the main event of UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden, a card that will also include a welterweight title fight between new champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Stephen Thompson.

Women’s straw-weight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will defend her belt against Polish countrywoman Karolina Kowalkiewicz on the long-awaited New York date, and former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will fight Raquel Pennington.

A UFC 205 news conference with the participants is scheduled Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

New York had previously upheld legislation that prohibited mixed martial arts fighting in the state until Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed new legislation in April that permitted the sport.

The assignment of featherweight champion McGregor (20-3) atop the card happened after White previously had indicated his unwillingness to allow the charismatic Irishman to revisit his past attempt to wear two belts at once.

White said following McGregor’s Aug. 20 welterweight victory by decision over Nate Diaz that McGregor would either need to participate in a rematch with former featherweight champion Jose Aldo of Brazil next, or lose the featherweight belt.

Aldo will remain in a holding pattern, a UFC official said.

“No convincing took place,” Attar told The Times about McGregor. “When things make sense for all parties involved, you can have an intelligent conversation about it and have a meeting of the minds.

“[UFC executives] are smart businessmen and this makes perfect business sense, not to mention [that it] was the original plan” to allow McGregor to seek a double-belt feat.

McGregor previously was in position to gain the second belt in March, but former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos suffered a training-camp foot injury less than two weeks before their fight, and Diaz emerged as the replacement opponent in a welterweight fight McGregor lost by second-round submission.

That required the rematch that McGregor won last month in Las Vegas.

Dos Anjos, meanwhile, lost his belt to Philadelphia’s Alvarez (28-4) by first-round knockout on July 7, and Alvarez aggressively pushed for a date with the fighter who has generated the UFC’s top live gates.

Only two other fighters, Randy Couture and B.J. Penn, have previously won two UFC belts.