Who is Conor McGregor fighting next at UFC 264?

Former UFC double champion Conor McGregor is set to take on Dustin Poirier at the UFC 264 event on July 10. The bout is the third meeting between the pair. The Irishman will enter the cage to avenge the knockout loss he suffered to Poirier at UFC 257 in January. The event will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will headline International Fight Week.

Conor McGregor became the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion by defeating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016. However, McGregor's subsequent career trajectory saw mixed success. The Irishman has only been able to score one professional MMA win in the last five years, a KO win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.

The UFC's vacant lightweight title had Conor McGregor as the obvious frontrunner following champion Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement in October 2020. But The Notorious One's quest to reclaim his title came to an abrupt halt at the hands of old rival and former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in January 2021.

After a competitive showing in the first round, McGregor succumbed to Poirier's persistent calf kick and lost the fight via a second-round knockout. The loss marked the first knockout defeat of Conor McGregor's MMA career. McGregor won the first fight against Poirier by a first-round knockout all the way back in 2014. The UFC 257 loss inevitably set the stage for a trilogy fight which culminated in the UFC 264 booking.

Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor 3 will be fought in front of a sold-out crowd

Starting with the UFC 261 pay-per-view event that will take place on April 24, the UFC is set to bring back a live audience. The company was forced to host all its events in empty arenas following the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020.

As revealed by UFC president Dana White in a social media post, tickets for the UFC 264 event headlined by Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier sold out within seconds after the bookings opened. According to the post, the event will have an astonishing 20,800 fans in attendance.

BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!! See you in Vegas👊🏻 pic.twitter.com/PqZBljX0DF

— danawhite (@danawhite) April 16, 2021

The UFC’s decision to entertain a live audience has received stern criticism from a large section of the MMA community. Although the pandemic has been receding for a while, mass gatherings still carry a high risk of an outbreak.