Poirier, McGregor complete epic trilogy
Lightweight MMA stars Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor will complete an epic trilogy of fights when they meet in the main event of UFC 264 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 11 July 2021.
This event will see the first full capacity crowd at Las Vegas for the Ultimate Fighting Championship since UFC 248 in March 2020.
Poirier (27-6, 1 NC) and McGregor (22-5) have met twice before: their first fight was a featherweight bout in September 2014 at UFC 178, where McGregor won by first-round technical knockout. They then ascended to lightweight for an eventual rematch in January 2021 at UFC 257, where Poirier prevailed via second-round knockout.
This third meeting of former lightweight champions will decide their rivalry once and for all, with McGregor confident that this time he will emerge victorious.
“I beat him in the original bout. I lost in the rematch. And then we’ve got trilogy, I’ve got a few little adjustments to make. I feel very, very confident. I’m very focused and driven. And I’ll go in there and put on one hell of a performance and get it back on July 10th,” said ‘The Notorious’.
Poirier, meanwhile, is expecting McGregor to utilise the same calf kicks that were so effective for the American in the pair’s second match earlier this year.
“He felt how crippling those kicks and how painful those kicks are and how much it changes the dynamic of a fight that I think he’s going to try and use them against me now. I really do, and that’s what I started doing, I started trying to use them every chance I got after I was hurt with them,” said ‘The Diamond’.
The co-main event of the night sees Stephen Thompson (16-4-1) looking to mark himself out as the next natural challenger for welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, though he faces a tough opponent in Gilbert Burns (19-4).