McGregor states he will fight Poirier on Jan. 23

It appears Conor McGregor is OK waiting until 2021 for his next UFC fight.

On Wednesday, UFC president Dana White told ESPN, the promotion’s broadcast partner, that he wouldn’t give McGregor a 2020 date as wanted for a potential rematch with Dustin Poirier. Instead, the UFC offered McGregor a Jan. 23 date as a take-it-or-leave-it situation.

“We offered him a fight. We got him his own date,” White said Wednesday. “We didn’t have a date this year. We have everything laid out for this year, with world champions fighting for titles. He wants to fight Dustin Poirier apparently, so we went to (broadcast partner) ESPN and got him his own date. He’s been offered Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23. It’s a yes or no answer.”

McGregor’s location request figures to be at least possible after the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) stated last week that it’s ready to return live combat sporting events with fans. Already, the Cowboys are one of only several NFL teams letting fans in their stadium.

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McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) expressed interest early this year of being active and fighting “a season” with at least three fights in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic complicated those plans.

The UFC star previously stated that he would accept the Poirier rematch under the condition that it happened this year.

That’s all changed, which is good for the UFC as White stated he wasn’t willing to alter the fight schedule to accommodate McGregor’s request.

“That’s not how it works,” White said. “We laid out this year. He was retired. Would anybody disagree he was retired? Through this crazy pandemic year we’re going through, we faced a lot of challenges. There were a lot of things done to make this thing work. We made it happen. We have our schedule laid out. Fighters have committed to it. Fighters have started training for these fights.

“Conor came back and wants to fight Dustin, so we went out and got him his own date. It’s Jan. 23.”

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