Dustin Poirier has officially signed his
contract to fight Conor McGregor on July 10, sources say. McGregor,
as we know, was already in.— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
April 2, 2021
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. It’s on. On Friday,
ESPN broke the news that Dustin
Poirier (27-6, 1 NC) and Conor
McGregor (22-5) had officially signed their bout agreements to
compete on
UFC 264 on July 10. The two lightweights will headline the
pay-per-view event that is expected to take place in the T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas with fans in attendance. The two had been
targeted for the matchup back in March, and the bout has now
been made official. No title will be on the line, but McGregor has
suggested a custom belt be created for the victor of this
match.
Poirier and McGregor are 1-1 headed into the trilogy match, with
each scoring a knockout of the other. Most recently, Poirier
toppled McGregor with leg kicks and punches to become the first man
to knock out the Irishman. “The Diamond” bounced back from a
submission loss to Khabib
Nurmagomedov with a “Fight of the Year” candidate in June 2020
against Dan Hooker,
and his last fight was against McGregor. Through the years, the
pound-for-pound talent and one-time interim lightweight champ has
notched wins over the likes of Max
Holloway, Justin
Gaethje, Eddie
Alvarez and many others.
McGregor will be looking to rebound from his first knockout defeat
in this automatic rematch, as neither man elected to take another
fight before facing one another in the cage a final time. Since he
left the sport to test the waters in boxing, McGregor has not fared
well inside the Octagon, with a submission loss to Nurmagomedov and
the aforementioned knockout against Poirier bookended by a quick
clobbering of Donald
Cerrone. The Irishman became the first simultaneous
two-division champion in UFC history by capturing the featherweight
throne from Jose Aldo and
then wresting the lightweight crown from Alvarez the following
year. McGregor never defended either title.
UFC 264 will most likely take place in the T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas with a headliner pitting Poirier against McGregor for the
third time. Few other bouts have been announced yet, although an
intriguing tilt will see former flyweight title challengers square
off as Jennifer
Maia faces Jessica Eye.
Additionally, grappling expert Ryan Hall
collides with the unbeaten Ilia
Topuria on this event.
