It appears the UFC is angling for a trilogy fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor, but there’s a catch.
After Poirier (27-6 MMA, 19-5 UFC) evened the score with McGregor by stopping him in Round 2 at UFC 257, both fighters have expressed interest in a rubber match – and it seems like things are trending in that direction.
In a recent interview with UFC broadcast partner ESPN, UFC president Dana White said a trilogy bout between Poirier and McGregor (22-5 MMA, 10-3 UFC) is the fight to make, but insisted Khabib Nurmagomedov is still the lightweight champion, and a McGregor-Poirier fight won’t be for a vacant title.
“When you have two guys – Dustin who’s the No. 1 guy in the world ,and a guy like Conor – and they both want it that badly, you do it,” White said. “These guys (at lightweight) are all going to fight it out and we will narrow it down to the two guys that will face off for the title.”
White said he is set to meet Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) in Las Vegas, and he’s still convinced he can lure him out of retirement. Nurmagomedov has said on numerous occasions he doesn’t want to hold the division up, but White doesn’t see it that way.
“I’m still going to meet with him here in Vegas,” White said. “We’re supposed to go to dinner soon. First of all, the one thing that he says is he doesn’t want to stall and keep the title in limbo – which he’s not, anyway. All these guys need to fight. I saw some talk yesterday where everyone is like, ‘Dustin should be the champion.’ Well, Dustin just got smoked by Khabib. Conor got smoked by Khabib. Gaethje got smoked by Khabib. There’s no guy that you look at and go, ‘Oh, this guy.’ They’re going to have to fight it out.
“What’s fun for us, being the fans, if you look at the No. 1 ranked guy in the world, Dustin Poirier, all the way down to No. 7, Rafael dos Anjos, the fights that can be made to find out who becomes the next champion are unbelievable. So we’re in for some incredible fights to find out which two of these guys from 1 to 7 will square off to become the next world champion.”
Dana White says Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor trilogy won’t be for lightweight title
