McGregor Poirier 3 Official

When Chandler vs Olivera was announced for the UFC Mens Lightweight Belt, another fight became all but confirmed immediately as well. Because there was no way to explain Dustin Poirier's absence from the Lightweight title picture other than another fight with McGregor being imminent.

Dustin will get the chance to cement his legacy above Conor and take home the biggest payday of his career on July 10. The Louisiana born fighter took home $750, 000 plus bonuses earlier in. January and will likely get a PPV cut this time around, which should be high as McGregor's hasn't done under a million PPV buys since UFC 189.

For McGregor a second crack at the one of the current elites at Lightweight is about more than avenging his first career knockout loss. He's likely got to show that he's still one of the best in the world to maintain his current fight privileges (such as getting this rematch booked). The Irishman hasn't lost back to back MMA matches ever in his career and there's no telling what doing so now would do to his stock.

It's gonna take a whole lot more than defending calf kicks, Poirier was able to implement a near perfect gameplan in January defensively, wearing any shot he took from that famed left hand well and timing a great takedown early which transitioned to a clinch battle to get through some of those early dangerous minutes. in the last standup minutes of the first Conor was able to land but no shots looked reminiscent of the touch of that death power Conor was able to sail through Dustin with at Featherweight. Conventional wisdom was that the last 3 rounds would favour Poirier once it got there, and Dustin showed no difficulties managing the first 2. McGregor will either have to find a creative way to land more early (which for him has typically been exhausting flashy moves), or stay dangerous past the 2nd round which is something he's never done in his career. All while worrying about those damn calf kicks too

-Max