It has been over a calendar year since Conor McGregor has stepped in the octagon and this Saturday, January 23, he'll make his return. In 2020, McGregor fans we're only given a total of 40 seconds of action from the Irishman who dismantled the well-decorated Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in that amount of time. Fans anticipated much more from McGregor last year, including a possible rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight championship, but expectations fell short for both McGregor and UFC fans as the pandemic changed those plans and Conor announced his retirement for the second time in his career.
2021 will serve as a fresh start for McGregor as he will get a rematch, but not for the title, and not against Khabib. Instead, he'll face off against Dustin Poirier, the No. 2 ranked lightweight in the UFC for the second time in his career. The last time these two faced off was back in 2014 and McGregor ended the fight with a TKO of Poirier within the first two minutes.
Since then, the now 32-year-old Poirier has reshaped himself to become a completely different fighter. He has won 10 fights since the loss to McGregor, beating notable fighters including Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, and Max Holloway. While McGregor has participated in
significantly fewer fights in that time frame, he did become the only fighter in history to hold two belts at different weight classes simultaneously.
Fans can expect to see a much more mature Poirier in this bout as he'll have a big task to face, matching the endless energy of the former double champ.
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