Dana White says Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2 has to be at lightweight: ‘That fight means nothing at 170’
Dana White is making sure Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier know their fight will be at lightweight.
Over the last few weeks, both men have agreed to rematch on Jan. 23. Although many are skeptical it will even happen, White says McGregor is not one to back out of a fight so he’s confident the scrap will go on as planned.
“Well, you know we offered the fight and we got (Conor McGregor) his own date. That wasn’t a date, that date didn’t exist. We worked with ESPN, we got him his own date,” Dana White said to BT Sport. “We’ve offered them the fight and I know contracts haven’t been signed yet. Conor likes to play games, Conor plays games and does his thing. One thing Conor doesn’t do, is Conor doesn’t commit to a fight and then not fight. Conor fights.”
What weight class the fight will be at is another question. Conor McGregor last fought at welterweight and his coach, John Kavanagh hinted that the Dustin Poirier fight would be at 170lbs. However, for White, he says for either man to earn a title shot off the win the fight needs to take place at lightweight or the scrap means nothing.
“It’s 155lbs. I’m not putting on a multi-million dollar fight at a catchweight, that means nothing. It means nothing, that fight means nothing at 170,” White explained. “Neither one of those two are ranked at a 170lbs and it doesn’t do anything in the 155lbs division if either one of them win because they are fighting at 170. It literally makes no sense. There are plenty of orgainzations that put on fights that make no sense. You can go watch those kind of fights every weekend, that is not what we do here.”
Conor McGregor is coming off a 40-second TKO win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in January. Since then, he called to fight several times in 2020 but that did not come to fruition and even retired again.
Dustin Poirier, meanwhile, returned to the win column in June with a Fight of the Year contender against Dan Hooker.
