It looked like Conor McGregor wouldn't be fighting for the remainder of 2020. If the biggest star in mixed martial arts and one of the most notable athletes gets his way, a return to the Octagon could be coming by the end of the calendar year.
McGregor took to Twitter on Thursday morning to announce he "accepted the UFC offer" to rematch former interim lightweight champion, Dustin Poirier. But the Irish native put a caveat to taking the fight along with a series of dates the fight could take place along with donating a significant amount of money to Poirier's charity.
Two weeks ago, the UFC offered Poirier to McGregor for UFC 257 on Jan. 23, but McGregor countered with those respective dates.
The date of Nov. 21 is scheduled to be UFC 255. But the show no longer has a viable main event as Cody Garbrandt pulled out of his flyweight title bout against champion Deiveson Figueiredo due to a torn biceps and was replaced by Alex Perez. The fight card on Dec. 12 is UFC 256, which also doesn't have a headliner as the proposed welterweight title bout featuring Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns will be taking place in 2021.
Sources tell ESPN that the UFC is contemplating McGregor's counteroffer and that Poirier accepted the fight for Nov. 21 or Dec. 12.
Talk of a McGregor-Poirier sequel began when the former had leaked private messages almost two weeks ago on social media after being frustrated with UFC President Dana White and the promotion, which led to him tweeting that he retired from the sport in June. McGregor went on to propose a charity event to Poirier, who quickly agreed to the offer. Shortly after that, the UFC reached out to McGregor and Poirier to gauge their interest in meeting up once again.
McGregor and Poirier fought at UFC 178 in September 2014, but as featherweights. The former two-division world champion starched Poirier in the first round.
The 32-year-old last competed in January at UFC 246, knocking out Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds. Meanwhile, Poirier defeated Dan Hooker in June by unanimous decision in one of the year's best fights.