The UFC world has been excited about the prospect of Conor McGregor (22-4) and Dustin Poirier (26-6, 1 NC) squaring off for the second time before the end of 2020. The two fighters have agreed to a fight via social media.
McGregor came out on Twitter and said that he accepted the UFC’s offer to rematch Poirier. However, McGregor stated that the fight had to take place in 2020. After the inactivity this year, McGregor is itching to get back into a UFC cage.
Poirier was on board with the plan. However, the UFC was not. Many people believed that the UFC would figure out a way to work McGregor – Poirier 2 into the schedule. However, Dana White said today that the promotion is giving the two fighters a take it or leave it deal.
"That's not how it works. We laid out this year. [Conor McGregor] was retired. Would anybody disagree that he was retired?"
Dana White explains to @bokamotoESPN why McGregor won't be scheduled to fight in 2020. pic.twitter.com/SEaCK8nY5G
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 14, 2020
The UFC making a mistake?
White said that the UFC offered McGregor the Poirier fight on January 23rd. However, the promotion would not move around their schedule to make it work to have McGregor fight before the end of the year like he wanted.
For context, McGregor is the highest PPV generating fighter the UFC has on the roster. The promotion has agreements to pay their champions PPV money when they are on a PPV event. With McGregor on the card, the champions would make much more money.
The UFC‘s two remaining PPV events of 2020 have a total of four title fights. Two championships on the line at UFC 255 and UFC 256. That means that the promotion would likely have to shell out PPV money to four fighters on the card at least which they won’t do.
That is why the promotion is taking the hard stance and not giving in. Because of the promotion’s stance, we are likely not going to see McGregor rematch with Dustin Poirier. I get both sides, but to me, a lot of the blame should fall on the UFC for failing to book McGregor a fight in the summer to begin with.
White publicly said that the promotion wanted to wait to get fans back before McGregor fought again. The live gate for Conor McGregor fights is off the charts. Because they held out too long, McGregor walked away. Now, they are letting a McGregor fight slip through their hands once again.