Conor McGregor ‘obsessed’ with Dustin Poirier rematch, says UFC boss Dana White as he raves about lightweight division
CONOR McGREGOR is ‘completely obsessed’ with an immediate Dustin Poirier rematch as Dana White hinted the trilogy could be next. McGregor’s return went up in smoke in January, after he was knocked out by Poirier, the man he initially beat in 2014. When the Irishman was first beaten in the UFC, against Nate Diaz in […]
CONOR McGREGOR is ‘completely obsessed’ with an immediate Dustin Poirier rematch as Dana White hinted the trilogy could be next.
McGregor’s return went up in smoke in January, after he was knocked out by Poirier, the man he initially beat in 2014.
When the Irishman was first beaten in the UFC, against Nate Diaz in March 2016, he demanded a rerun and avenged the result five months later.
UFC president White revealed McGregor is equally as hellbent on redemption against Poirier but it will not be for the lightweight title.
He told ESPN: “He’s completely obsessed with the rematch now and wants the fight back.
“What’s fun for us, being the fans, if you look at the number-one ranked guy in the world, Dustin Poirier all the way down to number seven, who I think is Rafael dos Anjos, the fights that can be made to find out who becomes the next champion are unbelievable.
“We’re in for some incredible fights to find out which two of these guys from one to seven will square off to become the next world champion.”
Poirier, 32, put himself right in line for a shot at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s belt, despite the champion’s fighting future remaining uncertain.
But his long-anticipated second crack at the crown could be made to wait, with McGregor, 32, destined to receive his wish of a trilogy bout.
White said: “When you have two guys, Dustin who is the number-one guy in the world and a guy like Conor and they both want it that badly, you do it, you know, you do it.”
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When asked if the McGregor – Poirier trilogy could be for the title, White responded: “No. These guys are all going to fight it out, we’ll narrow it down to the two guys who will face off for the title.”
White is still holding out on unbeaten Nurmagomedov reversing his retirement to return for one final fight.
Khabib hung up the gloves in October after the first fight since the loss of his influential father Abdulmanap, who passed away aged 57 in July.
But he always maintained it was his dad’s dream to see him walk away from the fight game 30-0.
With Nurmagomedov one win away from doing so, UFC president Dana White tried to tempt him back in a meeting on Fight Island before UFC 257.
But after McGregor was beaten by Poirier – two of his ex-opponents – White revealed Khabib was uninspired and likely to remain in retirement.
White is set to hold fresh talks with Nurmagomedov in Las Vegas and has not lost confidence that the Russian WILL make a comeback.
He said: “No. Still going to meet him here in Vegas, we’re supposed to go to dinner soon.
“First of all the one thing 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 was 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 say ‘Oh, this guy’… they’re going to have to fight it out, 1-7 fight this thing out and we’ll find out who the champ is.”