Champ Conor McGregor, rival Jim Alers meet at Cage Warriors 51 on Dec. 31

Cage Warriors featherweight champion Conor McGregor (11-2) and rival Jim Alers (9-1) have a date for their title fight, and it'll ring in the new year.

The 145-pounders meet at Cage Warriors 51, officials today announced.

The event takes place Dec. 31 at The Helix in the Irish capital of Dublin. The event's main card streams live on MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following Facebook prelims.

McGregor and Alers, who've had a war of words on Twitter, initially were slated to fight earlier this month at Cage Warriors Fight Night 7. However, McGregor was forced off the card with a facial injury that ultimately required surgery.

The brash McGregor fights in his home country while Alers heads overseas from Florida.

McGregor has good reason to feel confident ahead of his first attempted title defense. Since a loss to Joseph Duffy in 2010, he's posted seven consecutive wins, six of which have come via knockout. Most recently, McGregor submitted Dave Hill to win Cage Warriors' 145-pound championship, which he hopes eventually will lead to a UFC contract.

Alers, meanwhile, has been on a run of his own with five consecutive wins, all via stoppage. In his two recent Cage Warriors appearances, the well-rounded fighter has picked up a TKO win over Matteus Lahdesmaki (12-7-3 at the time) and submitted Marcio Cesar (16-6-1). In fact, all nine of his career wins, including a notable 2009 victory over Freddy Assuncao, have come via stoppage.

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