Jose Aldo-Conor McGregor winner gets spot next to Rousey on 'EA UFC 2' game cover

For the first time, the result of an actual sporting event will determine the cover of an EA Sports video game.

UFC President Dana White on Thursday announced that the winner of next week’s UFC 194 main event between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor will have the second spot on the cover of “EA UFC 2” alongside Ronda Rousey.

Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) is the first female to land a global lead cover spot on an EA SPORTS title. It was announced prior to her fight against Holly Holm at UFC 193 that she will be the “EA UFC 2” lead, the second installment of the UFC video game franchise set for release in the spring. Rousey went on to suffer a shocking upset loss to Holm in Australia.

Featherweight champion Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) meets interim champ McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) at UFC 194 to unify the belts – a fight that was supposed to happen in July at UFC 189 before Aldo got injured. UFC 194 takes place Dec. 12 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

But now there is a little extra at stake with the winner set to join Rousey on a video game cover.

The first “EA UFC” title saw Alexander Gustafsson win a spot after a fan vote put him on the cover alongside ex-UFC champ Jon Jones.

The game was announced in November, and along with Rousey as the lead cover spot, a slew of other features were announced for “EA UFC 2,” including a new career mode, which for the first time will allow users to play as a male or female fighter. “EA UFC 2” will also featured an updated grappling system, refined character models and several other new modes such as the ability to create an event, fight in a knockout-only mode and much more.

Ronda Rousey

EA Sports Creative Director Brian Hayes said Rousey was the natural choice for the cover given her superstar status in the sport and consistent ability to break down barriers as the reigning UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

“It’s the first time a female athlete’s been the lead cover athlete for an EA SPORTS title,” Hayes told MMAjunkie. “It shows how meteoric her rise has been. When we started development on ‘EA UFC 1,’ the women’s bantamweight division didn’t exist in the UFC. We weren’t planning on creating female fighters and then all of a sudden Ronda Rousey came around.

“As a result largely of what she’s accomplished, we’ve gone from when we signed the deal (with the UFC), there was no concept of female fighters in the game, to now there is a female fighter in the cover who is arguably the biggest UFC fighter in the world.”

For more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.