There’s been a lot of “will-they-won’t-they” regarding a potential rematch between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, but it finally looks like all parties are on the same page, and we could see the fight happen near the end of January.
McGregor has been asking for a fight for some time now, and Poirier enthusiastically stepped up to answer the call. The two publicly agreed to fight each other outside of the UFC for charity a couple of weeks ago, but now, it seems that won’t be necessary.
McGregor had initially been pushing the UFC to make the fight happen this year, adding that he’d still donate a large sum of money to Poirier’s nonprofit, The Good Fight Foundation, after the fight, just as he’d agreed when they discussed the potential charity fight.
Hello Dustin! I accepted the @ufc offer to fight you, but told them it must happen in 2020. I’m ready for Nov 21st, given that cards recent injury issues, as well as any of the December dates, the 12th and the 19th. I’ll also still donate the $500k to The Good Fight Foundation
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 8, 2020https://t.co/23hN4AHtoI
Dana White, however, reiterated that there wouldn’t be any opportunities for McGregor for the rest of 2020, as the end of the year is fast approaching and the major spots on upcoming cards have been filled. Instead, he offered McGregor the chance to fight Poirier on January 23, 2021. McGregor has since accepted and expressed hope that the event would take place in the Dallas Cowboys stadium.
Even in the era of COVID-19, the location is at least possible. Last week, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) announced that they’d begin allowing combat sporting events to take place in the state with limited audience numbers.
The news, of course, comes just a few months after McGregor announced his retirement from fighting (again). Regarding the potential to rearrange other fighters or cards for the sake of getting McGregor a fight, White told ESPN, “We laid out this year. He was retired. Would anybody disagree he was retired? Through this crazy pandemic year we’re going through, we faced a lot of challenges. There were a lot of things done to make this thing work. We made it happen. We have our schedule laid out. Fighters have committed to it. Fighters have started training for these fights. Conor came back and wants to fight Dustin, so we went out and got him his own date. It’s Jan. 23.”
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