Two fights were offered this week for Dustin Poirier to fight Conor McGregor. He accepted both.
After McGregor had a rather public scuffle with UFC president Dana White over social media and in interviews, the Irish superstar worked out an exhibition bout for charity with Poirier set to take place in December.
As soon as the UFC caught wind of the exhibition bout, they contacted both fighters to try and set up a fight in the Octagon.
White confirmed the offer of the bout last week, but this week revealed that Poirier had indeed accepted the fight. Now the promotion is waiting on McGregor, who in June tweeted his retirement.
“They’ve been offered a fight to fight in January. Poirier accepted, we’re supposed to hear from Conor (soon),” White said in an interview with UFC Arabia.
McGregor last fought in January, defeating Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in 40 seconds. At that point, he had plans for a busy 2020 “season,” in which he intended to fight three or four times.
Talks with the UFC produced little by way of bouts in the time frame that McGregor wanted. Then the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a near standstill.
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Despite White quickly getting the UFC back in business, reigniting the entire professional sports world in doing so, McGregor’s frustrations hit a tipping point. That’s when he retired in June.
He has since insisted he is retired… until just recently.
McGregor made some private messages with White public via social media. He then tweeted that he was going to be boxing Manny Pacquiao in the Middle East. Then came the exhibition bout with Poirier.
It sounds as if McGregor is ready to un-retire. The question is, which direction is he headed? Will he mend fences with White or will he continue to try and flex is muscle?
An ESPN report recently cited McGregor’s management team that insisted as reaffirming its desire to have McGregor box Manny Pacquiao and have a charity sparring match with Poirier instead of the official UFC bout in January.
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Dana White says Dustin Poirier accepted Conor McGregor fight… waiting on Conor