UFC officially announces Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier at UFC 257

After months of buildup, UFC has finally announced Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2. The lightweight bout between the #2 and #4 ranked fighters will take place at UFC 257 on January 23, 2021.

The fight has been in the making for a long time now. Dana White had verbally announced it was happening a while back. Both Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier have publicly stated that the bout was going to take place at Lightweight.

UFC was waiting for both the fighters to sign their fight agreement for UFC 257 to make the news official. Dustin Poirier had done that already, and Conor McGregor did his part too, a couple of days back.

We now have an official announcement and poster for the fight.

The rematch is OFFICIAL! 💎 @DustinPoirier faces 🇮🇪 @TheNotoriousMMA on Jan 23. #UFC257 pic.twitter.com/G8IAfISBPZ

— UFC (@ufc) November 23, 2020

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Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier - What happened the first time

Many fans have been waiting for this rematch for 6 years and they had almost given up when Conor McGregor announced his retirement from UFC earlier this year.

It is not as huge news as a possible rematch between Conor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, but it is still a highly-anticipated second edition, especially because of how heated the buildup to their previous encounter was.

Poirier had already been in UFC for around 2 years with some impressive wins under his belt when Conor McGregor joined the company in 2013.

Dustin Poirier was Conor's fourth opponent in a little more than a year, having gone through Marcus Brimage, Max Holloway, and Diego Brandao in quick succession. Poirier himself came into the fight with a three-fight win streak.

There was a lot of hype surrounding the bout, and anyone who has followed Conor McGregor's career knows that he was even more brash and outspoken heading into a fight in his earlier days. Exchanges of insults followed, which took the form of a heated altercation at the weigh-in the day before.

In the end, Conor McGregor lived up to his trash-talk by defeating Dustin Poirier in 105 seconds. The vicious McGregor left hook caught Poirier behind the ear before a series of strikes to the head sent him to the mat.

Dustin Poirier had tweeted after this bout that he was truly heartbroken about the outcome. After Dana White had initially confirmed the rematch back in October, 'The Diamond' said that this is not about getting square with his opponent, but to get the victory he owes himself.

This rematch isn't about getting even. It's about getting where I belong. It is payback, but to myself. I owe this victory to me.#PaidInFull

— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) October 24, 2020

For Conor McGregor, on the other hand, this was the beginning of much greater things that were about to happen in the next couple of years. He said that he was going for the Featherweight title next after Poirier.

McGregor: “You know what’s next. That world title is next."

— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) September 28, 2014

Continuing to be a man of his words, The Irishman took the title for himself from Jose Aldo three fights later in a 13-second knockout - still the fastest in UFC title matches.

Two matches with Nate Diaz at Welterweight later, Conor McGregor earned the Lightweight belt as well, making history as the first-ever Champ-Champ in UFC.