After months of negotiations, some of which was quite public, Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier have been booked to fight each other. MMA Fighting reports that the deal has been made and that the bout will go down at UFC 257 on January 23, 2021.
MMA Fighting added that, according to their sources, McGregor and his camp would prefer the fight happen sooner. With Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson’s December 12 bout canceled, McGregor is reportedly interested in moving the Poirier fight up to take its place and headline UFC 256.
Talk of McGregor and Poirier running back their 2014 contest, which McGregor won by TKO, first emerged in September when McGregor and Poirier engaged over twitter about the possibility of an exhibition bout for charity. In public tweets, both men seemed to agree to terms and a date. McGregor would even release a poster advertising the ‘sparring match’.
With both men locked into exclusive UFC contracts it seemed unlikely that they would be able to do something like this outside of an official Octagon. And it didn’t take long for the independent promotion angle to be squashed in favour of a fully-sanctioned UFC rematch.
Over the past few months both McGregor and Poirier have leaked details regarding the negotiations for the fight. McGregor has made it known that he wanted his next fight to be in a stadium. Whereas Poirier has vented some frustration, asking UFC president Dana White to “stop playing games” and send him the “right contract”.
Despite the hiccups along the way, it seems that the deal has been reached and both men are now preparing to face each other in the New Year.
UFC 257 is currently location TBD. However, it appears it will most likely take place at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas.
McGregor’s last Octagon appearance was a swift beating of Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246 in January. Since then McGregor declared he had retired from the sport, was investigated over indecent exposure in France, claimed he was boxing Manny Pacquaio and has been accused by Dana White of doing one of “the dirtiest things you can do” in leaking personal messages between the two.
Poirier last fought in June. That’s when he took a unanimous decision victory over Dan Hooker. Prior to that he was defeated by UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242 last September.
About the author
