McGregor v Poirier: What To Expect From Fight Number Three

In short, fireworks. The “Notorious” will be looking to avenge his loss at UFC 257 on Fight Island in which Poirer won via KO/TKO, the first such decision in McGregor’s career. The fight is earmarked for July 10th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It is widely expected that the winner of the fight will face the winner of the UFC 262 main event which was Charles Oliveira. Currently, Poirer is the number one ranked lightweight on the planet. However, should he succumb to the Notorious, then McGregor will likely face off against Oliveira later this year for the strap. Conor has previously stated that he aims to be a more active fighter than in previous years and wants to fight multiple times this year.

As McGregor was humbled like never before in his last outing against Poirier, he has repeatedly taken to social media to show off his training regime and the intensity of his workouts as seen on Sportskeeda’s website. Could we see a vastly different McGregor as we did with the second Nate Diaz fight? Conor was beaten in their first matchup but when the second fight arrived, you could see a very different-looking Irishman.

Instead of going in guns blazing like in the first fight, Conor was cool, calm, and very measured as his leg kicks were a feature in his win by decision. Could that be the key for McGregor to taste victory against Poirier in their third bout? Potentially.

With both fighters having a lot to lose in this fight, the pressure is well and truly on. Both have won a fight each at UFC 178 for McGregor and at UFC 257 for Dustin. UFC 264 represents the chance for each fighter to put their feud to bed once and for all. Although there was clear respect between both fighters at UFC 257, there is definitely bad blood between the two so you can expect their third encounter to be a match worth seeing. You can visit sidelines.io odds comparison for all the latest odds on the fight.

Add to that the fact that the fight was almost called off before negotiations even started. The pair traded jabs on Twitter with Poirier revealing that McGregor did not come through on his promise to donate $500,000 to Dustin’s charity The Good Fight Foundation. When the American publicly stated that Conor went back on his promise, it was only a matter of time before the Notorious responded and boy did he.

Conor took to his Twitter and stated that the fight was “off” and that he would be fighting another fighter at UFC 264. Some UFC fans even called Conor cheap after he refused to make the half a million-dollar donation.

However, the Notorious cleared the incident up on Twitter by saying:

“A donation, not a debt. We’ve been awaiting the plans for the money that never came. I do with all my donations. Know where it’s going dot for dot. Otherwise it goes walking. As is the case with a lot of these foundations, sadly. You took the McG over the belt shows I was right”.

Essentially, McGregor stated that he did not make the donation because Poirier’s team did not give him the proper plans for where the money was going and that made him hesitant because he did not fully know where and how the money was going to be used. Because of this, Conor did not follow through on the donation hence why all the fireworks started.

Either way, the trilogy will be coming to an end and one thing is for certain, there will be trash-talking and there will be some fireworks. These two fighters will leave it all in the Octagon at UFC 264.