MMA Fighting - Reaction: Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2 Set For UFC 257

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Damon Martin react to the news that the widely rumored and discussed rematch between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier is set to headline UFC 257 on Jan. 23. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Damon Martin: @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, Mike Heck here for MMAfighting.com. And ladies and gentlemen, big news dropped earlier today on the website, our very own Damon Martin confirmed with multiple sources that the long-rumored and discussed fight between Connor McGregor and Dustin Porre, is officially a go. As of now, it is set for UFC 257 on January 23rd in Las Vegas. It'll be McGregor's first fight since his 42nd finish of Donald Soroni at UFC 247.

back in January, Porreya bounced back from his loss to Habibna Maga Madoff in September 2019 with the decision went over Dan Hooker in one of the best fights of 2020 back in June. Now, the road to get to this fight was quite interesting, especially considering that McGregor had announced his retirement earlier this year because he wanted to be very active. He wanted to have his quote unquote season and fight at least three times in 2020. Obviously, the world was rocked with the COVID-19 pandemic and he wasn't able to book a fight. he'd even asked for a fight with Diego Sanchez in release screenshots of conversation with Dana White.

There was talks about possibly booking a fight with Justin Gauchy in July. But again, the pandemic shut things down and the frustrations only continued. Porriere was in talks to fight Tony Ferguson at UFC 254 last month. But those talks fell through, which left Porier a bit frustrated in his own right. And that led to McGregor calling for a charity sparring match with Porier in Ireland. UFC nix that idea because why not have it in their very own octagon? And finally, here we are. This is, of course, a rematch from their first meeting at UFC 178 back in September 2014.

This is a featherweight bout and McGregor stopped Porier in just under two minutes. And one thing that's important to note, while UFC 257 is the plan, McGregor is hoping that the fight can happen a month prior at UFC 256 on December 12th, now that the originally scheduled main event between Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson has been scrapped. So a lot to unpack here. Let us bring in the man who brought this news to the world moments ago from MMAfighting.com. Damon Martin, Damon, big news today. The fight is finally done. You got to confirm super early this morning, huge fight to kick off the 2021 pay-per-view calendar year. So to give the folks a peek behind the curtain, when did you finally get to dot that

final eye or cross that final T in regards to this fight being a done deal? It was about, I would say about 5 a.m. Eastern time last night I got the final text message about confirmation. Long story short, you know, basically both guys had agreed on the fight. It wasn't really a matter of them not wanting the fire or the date or anything. It was really just a matter of getting a deal done on Porre's side. You know, Connor had verbally agreed and it had been reported earlier this week that, you know, basically that was the last hurdle to clear, so to speak. And from my understanding, all sides agreed as of last night. The only caveat, of course, is Connor still wants to fight earlier, and obviously it wouldn't be an issue had the fight between Amanda Nunes and

Megan Anderson not been canceled, you know, 24 hours ago. So from my understanding, Connor would still very much like to fight in December. I don't think the UFC is going to bend on that. I know that the contracts that, you know, Connor and Dustin, or excuse me, Dustin had agreed to was for January 23rd. So unless, you know, unless this becomes just a huge problem for the date, which I don't think it will be. We're going to see Connor McGregor fight Dustin Porre on January 23rd, and it's going to be a big one. A question that I've seen a lot is sort of what's at stake here. Of course, I mean, this is a huge fight, a lot of spotlight. But Habib Naramagam Adov announced this his retirement following his win over Justin Gachie, UFC 254.

Dana White says, Habib is still the champion, still the number one ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. and then earlier today, Habib's manager Ali Abdelaziz tweets out simply 30 and O. And what that means is anybody's guess at the moment. But as of right now, there's not going to be any kind of championship or interim belt or anything like that attached to this fight, right? No, nothing I've heard. And I don't think that's really a surprise. I mean, at the end of the day, this fight doesn't need a title. I mean, I'm sure Connor and Dustin would love to compete for one.

But Dustin's already been an interim champion. And he's got to know. I mean, they both got to know that even winning here doesn't guarantee they're going to get Habib. I mean, I think everyone kind of agrees if Habib is coming back for 30 and O, he's probably going to push really hard for that George St. Pierre fight. I know George wants it. Habib wants it. You know, it seems like that's the no-brainer. And if it is Habib's final fight of his career, he can go out in that way with a very big fight that doesn't really affect anything else.

But I'm quite sure they'd still like to promote him as the lightweight champion. So this is just a super fight. It's just a five-round main event. And that's the other reason why that December 12th card probably wouldn't happen because right now Al Jemaine Sterling and Peter Jan are still on that card. And if Connor is on that card, he's headlining. And it would be, I don't say a disservice to the title fight, but it would be bizarre to have a title fight behind a non-title fight in a pay-per-view, even though it is Connor McGregor.

So I think ultimately it's going to be January 23rd. It's going to be a non-title lightweight fight. And obviously the winner, you know, will be right there in line for the title shot either against Habib, which again, as I said, I don't think that would happen or against, you know, some other fighter to crown a new champion once Habib is actually gone, which could be a long ways away. We got to remember, I mean, even if Habib fights George St. Pierre, hypothetically, that probably wouldn't happen until deep, deep, deep in the next year. So we may not get a clearer picture on the lightweight title until, you know, the latter half

of 2021. Yeah, it's interesting because if Porier wins, I mean, you get the Connor rub, which is this absolutely massive. and if you're Connor, you just have so many different options. You can, you know, do something at 55. They could create some sort of title for him. I mean, with the power that he has, he can go up to 170 and do some damage there.

So I guess, like, this obviously has a big meaning for Porre, because he's looking to avenge a loss, plus this is just a massive opportunity because the superstar of Connor McGregor has just blown up since then. Where do you think the winner does go from here, in your opinion in this absolutely massive fight? Because with Habib, being the champion, and, you know, like you said,

he may not fight till deep next year, what happens then? Because Connor wants to stay active. I don't know if he can. Yeah, there's an interesting question. And I think it really comes down to what else happens in this division between now and then. I mean, if Habib comes back and he fights, you know, George St. Pierre at 155 pounds and it's for a title, that's a whole other story. But I don't know that's necessarily the case. When George did his interview, you know, started doing some interviews last month, he said he would probably prefer like a catchweight fight. I think we both know the size and magnitude of Habib versus GSP, there doesn't need to be a title on the line,

just like with Connor and Porre. But again, I think they'll still want to promote Habib as the champion, you know, going for 30 and O. But I think it depends on how this fight plays out, and I think it also depends on other fights in the division. I know Michael Chandler, as I'm sure everyone saw on Twitter, is calling for a fight against Tony Ferguson. It's probably the fight that makes the most sense

for his first UFC fight and for Tony coming back from the Justin Gachie fight, but we've still got Gachie out there. We got Dan Hooker out there. We got a big fight this weekend now between Paul Felder and Hafeel de Sannios, which could potentially put another person into that mix. So I think the reality is if Connor wants to stay really busy and he wins, then you can easily book him against Gachie. That is still a massive fight with or without a title on the line, and you move forward from there. If Habib is going to fight earlier than we expect and maybe he still has the title and he can get through a GSP fight, then maybe, you know, Connor stays out and waits for the title fight.

I think a lot of moving parts here are really going to determine what happens, you know, for these guys after January 23rd. I love this fight, and I'm glad this rematch is actually happening. But if I asked you in like July, August after Poirier beat Dan Hooker, if his next fight would be against Connor McGregor, how surprised are you now that this is the direction they went? Like, I think we saw the developments and we're not surprised at this point. But if I asked you this question in July, maybe early August, would you think that there is a good chance of this. rematch happening in both of their next fights? Not really, because at the time, you know, Dustin fighting Tony Ferguson seemed like it was going to happen in October.

And from my understanding, and we were, you know, at the five-yard line, just getting ready to cross into the goal line. And they couldn't quite strike a deal, you know, with Porriere. And then at that point, you know, Tony kind of stood up and said the same thing. And so they couldn't come to a deal. And, you know, things got kind of ugly at that point as it was very publicly stated. At that point, I don't think so.

I mean, I think at that point, you know, Porriet was raised. ready to fight Tony in October, ready to be the backup fight to Habib and Justin Gachi. Didn't happen. And then, you know, Connor kind of coming out of left field with the whole, you know, let's do a sparring match. And I think he was playing on the fact that, you know, it had been very publicly stated that Porre wasn't happy with the offer he had been made from the UFC. And so I think Connor Karen and a seize on that opportunity because he wasn't happy

with the UFC at that point. As we saw in his text messages and exchanged it with Dana White did he release that got pretty contentious there for a while. no, I didn't really think this was going to happen. Connor really hadn't expressed much interest in a rematch with Porriere, you know, anytime over the last couple of years. Usually when Porriay's name came up, Connor kind of, you know, kind of jabbed out a little bit, kind of insulted it a little bit, but it's hard to deny, you know, what Dustin has done.

And also, I want to give a shout to Dustin and his team for, you know, getting the deal done because, you know, everyone, you know, kind of gave them grief for the Tony Ferguson fight. And then, you know, when the rumors came out that maybe this fight wouldn't happen, everyone's putting the onus back on Porre. But good on him for sticking to his guns and getting a deal done that he was happy with because I think there's a lot of misconceptions about a Connor McGregor fight that anyone signs to fight him. You know, it's the quote-unquote red panty night. That's just not true.

I mean, if you have a contract and you sign a contract for what you're already agreed to, you're not going to get a huge back-end bonus or, you know, all these other things. So the fact that Porre was willing to stick to his guns to get a better deal says a lot about him and his character and his team that they didn't just, you know, immediately sign on the dotted line as soon as Connor's name was mentioned. I think that has to be talked about. If you're Tony Ferguson right now, what are you thinking? Yeah, you know, I spoke to Tony about two weeks ago and obviously he was, you know, pretty fired up. That was before, you know, Habib Gaci and, you know, obviously he wanted Porre. That didn't happen. He wanted Connor. That, you know, has never really happened. Obviously, I understand his frustration

at this point, you know, and it kind of looks like, you know, the only options available to him are either going to be try to push for a Gaichi rematch on a full camp to prepare for Gaichi, which, again, that was a great fight. I don't really know that anyone would complain about seeing it again, although I don't know if Justin would be itching to have that rematch one fight later, or the Chandler fight. I mean, as much as he's kind of given Michael Chandler grief, that would still be a big fight. And maybe, you know, if they could get a deal done, think about this. If they could get a deal done, could you imagine, you know, Connor McGregor and

Dustin Porre in the main event and Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler is the co-main event? I mean, how big would that be? It'd be massive. I would be sad because that fight deserves to be five rounds, but I'm not going to complain at all, Dave. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I mean, everything now, we kind of have to deal with these backups and with, you know, COVID-19 being a reality. I mean, there's no telling what could happen between now and January 23rd, so who knows.

But I know, obviously, Chandler has, you know, Chandler very much wants that Ferguson fight. I don't know if Tony is quite as on board. but I know Tony's a warrior and I know he's itching to fight he's been working on this gym and he's itching to get back in there so I would imagine if they can strike a deal I'd assume he would jump at that chance

well certainly a lot to keep an eye on here at 155 pounds in the UFC but one thing is certain Connor McGregor and Dustin Poiray are going to run it back January 23rd, 2021 off to a big start for the UFC and should be a very interesting matchup

to say the least. Damon, appreciate the time man. Oh, thank you as always, man. it. For Damon Meyer and I am Mike Heck. Thank you for watching. Get ready for a massive 2021 inside the Octagon. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.