UFC featherweight Conor McGregor will return to action at UFC 178 on September 27 to take on No. 6-ranked Dustin Poirier. UFC officials announced the match-up on Wednesday.
McGregor (15-2) is riding an eleven-fight winning streak. He last fought on July 19, defeating Diego Brandao by TKO in the first round.
Poirier (16-3) last competed on April 16, finishing Akira Corassani by TKO in the opening moments of the second round. He’s currently riding a three-fight winning streak.
Following McGregor’s win at UFC Fight Night 46 over Brandao, Poirier quickly took to Twitter to call out the Irishman and said he wasn’t impressed with his performance.
. @danawhite @seanshelby @lorenzofertitta I’m ready when you are.
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) July 19, 2014
UFC 178 sounds good to me.
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) July 19, 2014
McGregor addressed the possibility of a fight against Poirier during the UFC Fight Night 46 post-fight press conference, saying Poirier doesn’t want to fight him.
“That would be perfect for me. I already know that guy does not want to fight. His teammate Cole Miller, they’re from the same camp, pulled out of the fight he was scheduled to be here to compete tonight, he pulled out. You’re trying to tell me Dustin Poirier, top 10 guy, and Nik Lentz, a top 10 guy, both of whom had no fights scheduled didn’t know about Cole’s injury? They would have known before the UFC would have known. They would have heard that Cole was pulling out before the UFC would have heard. And yet nothing — they didn’t campaign for it, this is a main event slot, one of the fastest selling, it’s a big, big event, but yet there wasn’t a peep out of both of them,” McGregor said.
“I know he doesn’t want that fight. He can pretend that he wants the fight and send out his little tweets about this and that, but let’s do it. One by one I will take every single one of them out — if next in line is Dustin, that’s no problem.”
Now it’s a done deal. UFC 178 is headlined by a rematch between light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Their first meeting at UFC 165 was named the 2013 Fight of the Year.