Conor McGregor calls himself the lightweight world champion in a recent post on his social media platform and asks the UFC to book the trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier. The Notorious took to the social platform in what looks like a dig at UFC’s recent announcement on the title match-up between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira scheduled to main-event UFC 262 for the vacant lightweight championship.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMoodcqpdWQ/
Conor McGregor is coming off the first KO loss of his MMA career. The former dual champion returned to the lightweight division back in January at UFC 256 to take on former interim champion Dustin Poirier. While many believed that McGregor would triumph over the Diamond, that wasn’t the case. Poirier registered his second straight victory and sent a statement to the entire division with arguably the biggest win of his MMA career.
Also Read: “Wait For Me” – Former Lightweight Champion Calls Out Justin Gaethje
Since then, fight fans have crowned Poirier as the lightweight champion in their eyes, with #UncrownedChamp doing the rounds on the internet. Needless to say, fight fans were not too happy at the UFC’s decision to book Michael Chandler vs Charles Oliveira for the championship belt.
Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor 3 expected to take place in the fall
Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor are expected to settle the rivalry with the trilogy bout set to take place sometime later this year. Needless to say, the match-up will determine the #1 contender for the UFC lightweight championship.
Earlier, ESPN journalist Ariel Helwnai had stated that the UFC was initially planning for the trilogy bout in May. However, due to undisclosed reasons, the match-up couldn’t see the light of the day.
There was once a hope McGregor-Poirier 3 fight would get done for May 15 but it’s taken longer than hoped/expected so they moved on from that a while ago, sources say. Won’t happen on June 12 (Figueiredo-Moreno on that card), so latest hope is the July 10 card. We’ll see.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 19, 2021
It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for Conor McGregor, who will look to send a statement with a win over Poirier. Meanwhile, Dustin Poirier will look to prove that his win over McGregor was not a fluke and cement his position as the greatest of all time with back-to-back wins over the Notorious.
UNCROWNED WORLD CHAMPION
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) January 25, 2021
The UFC’s lightweight division looks completely stacked and with fighters like Justin Gaethje, Rafael dos Anjos, Dan Hooker, and Paul Felder just waiting for their next opponent, the future looks bright for the division.