Conor McGregor Agrees to Rematch Dustin Poirier, But There’s a Catch

After challenging Dustin Poirier to a charity match, Conor McGregor’s reporting he’s willing to rematch the lightweight in an official, UFC fight. But…McGregor says he’s only willing to do so if the bout takes place this year.

McGregor says he’s “accepted” rematch but only for 2020

Recently McGregor caused a bit of a stir when he challenged Poirier to fight, but for charity, outside of the UFC. Since the UFC would likely need to sign off on it, contractually speaking, the consensus was it was McGregor’s way of pressuring the promotion. 

After all, McGregor made it clear earlier this year that he wanted to have a busy 2020 campaign, before he ended up retiring in June (which he announced he was doing in part, out of frustration he wasn’t booked for his next bout).

Well, not long after McGregor proposed the charity fight with Poirier, Dana White relayed that the UFC has sent out offers for an official bout. On Thursday, McGregor jumped back into the headlines on account of this tweet.

Hello Dustin! I accepted the @ufc offer to fight you, but told them it must happen in 2020. I’m ready for Nov 21st, given that cards recent injury issues, as well as any of the December dates, the 12th and the 19th. I’ll also still donate the $500k to The Good Fight Foundation

What now?

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani is reporting that the UFC wanted to have McGregor and Poirier fight on January 23rd. But, more recently both UFC 255 on November 21st and UFC 256 on December 12th have taken hits.

Cody Garbrandt is no longer fighting flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 255 due to a bicep’s injury. Alex Perez is stepping in for him, but Perez doesn’t have the following the former bantamweight champ does.

UFC 256, meanwhile, has lost its original headliner altogether, as Kamaru Usman will not be ready to fight Gilbert Burns. The welterweight champ is recovering from injuries and the fight’s been postponed.

So…you would think that the UFC will take a long look at moving McGregor – Poirier 2 to either of these cards. Poirier has told ESPN he’s willing to fight at either one.

McGregor faced Poirier for the first time in 2014 and stopped him in the first round.