Conor McGregor Returns to the Octagon

It was announced that the Notorious Conor McGregor will be returning to the UFC to face Dustin Poirier.

This will be the second time these two have fought one another with McGregor winning the first encounter way back in 2014. The two plan to treat this fight as a promotion for Dustin’s charity; The Good Fight Foundation, with McGregor already pledging $500,000 towards the charity.

Despite the high-profile fight being agreed upon by both parties and the UFC’s urge to air this fight, there are still some logistical issues to work through.

Let’s take a look at them and whether or not they could derail this fight.

When?

The “when” of this fight seems to currently be the biggest issue. Dustin has repeatedly said he is ready and willing to fight McGregor whenever they are booked. Conor has similarly stated that he is prepared to fight Dustin. So where is the problem? The problem comes from the UFC’s side of things, a trend we will continue to see throughout this article. McGregor has repeatedly stated that he had wanted to fight multiple times in 2020 and is adamant about fighting again this year.

Conor is heavily pushing for the November 21st card, the December 12th card, or the December 19th card to hold their fight. The UFC is attempting to push the fight to early 2021.

Another reason for delaying the fight on the UFC side of things, aside from these cards having lots of fights already booked, is that a Conor McGregor card can draw large pay-per-view numbers. Also, as time goes on, promotions like the UFC will start to experiment with bringing fans into arenas. If the promotion can capitalize on having fans in the arena and drawing a gate, they will push this fight off for as long as they need to.

Where?

The where, although having limited options, is still an issue. Conor has pushed heavily for the fight to take place in Dublin, Ireland. The UFC, again depending on when the fight would take place, would much rather have the fight in the states where they can control the environment and, possibly, a crowd.

The fight could also theoretically take place on fight island in Abu Dhabi. The issues here really depend on the “when” so a lot will need to ironed out there first.

What?

This is a more grand scheme of things issue. What are the implications of this fight? Dustin is coming off of a loss to current Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov followed by a win against Lightweight up-and-comer Dan Hooker. Conor also lost to Khabib is his second most recent fight, followed by a long layoff, then a win against Donald Cerrone.

The winner of this fight should theoretically be at or close to contending for the title. This is also dependent on who will win the next title fight between Khabib and Justin Gaethje. The winner of McGregor-Poirier 2 could potentially see Tony Ferguson next.

Then the winner of that could see the winner of Khabib-Gaethje. However, the UFC could be eager to shove the winner of McGregor-Poirier 2 up to fight Khabib or Justin for the title, especially if McGregor wins. There are a tremendous amount of “ifs” related to the “what” section.