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Andreas Hale, ESPN
A fourth fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor is potentially one of the biggest fights that can be made in the UFC. And with McGregor returning to action for the first time since breaking his leg against Poirier three years ago against Michael Chandler at UFC 303, could the stars align for the rivals to meet again?
“I think that ship has sailed,” Poirier said to ESPN regarding a fourth fight with McGregor. “All I want is the UFC lightweight championship.”
Poirier, 35, returns to the Octagon at UFC 302 on June 1 to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title and has made it clear that he’s not interested in anything that doesn’t involve him fighting for the championship that has eluded him for the entirety of his 15-year career. The idea of fighting McGregor for what is surely a significant payday doesn’t move him despite their storied history inside of the Octagon.
McGregor knocked out Poirier in 2014 when the two met as featherweights on the rise. McGregor would go on to capture the UFC featherweight championship a little over a year later and become the biggest star in MMA. Poirier would rebound from the loss and challenge for the UFC lightweight championship but fell short to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019.
The two crossed paths again in UFC 257 in January 2021 where Poirier got a measure of revenge by knocking out McGregor out in the second round. The rubber match was immediately booked for UFC 264 in July of the same year.
The build to the trilogy was contentious where McGregor and Poirier engaged in a vitriolic war of words over social media and during fight week. Tensions boiled over during the fight and when McGregor’s leg snapped under his weight at the end of the first round, the bad blood only seemed to get worse as they traded unpleasantries with the Irish fighter taking shots at Poirier’s wife.
UFC president Dana White anticipated that a fourth fight would be made between the two fighters once the former two-division champion was cleared to compete, but McGregor remained out of action for nearly three years while Poirier fought on, challenging for both the lightweight title and the symbolic “BMF” championship.
With the time that has passed since their third meeting, Poirier said that his interest in settling the score with McGregor has waned and he’s financially secure enough to steer clear of another tumultuous build to a fight.
“I don’t feel the need to fight him again at all,” Poirier said dismissively. “I don’t need that [bad] energy in my life.”