UFC president Dana White told ESPN that he wants to book McGregor vs. Poirier for Jan. 23. However, McGregor recently wrote on Twitter that he wants to fight before the end of the year and would accept dates on Nov. 21, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19.
Hello Dustin! I accepted the @ufc offer to fight you, but told them it must happen in 2020. I’m ready for Nov 21st, given that cards recent injury issues, as well as any of the December dates, the 12th and the 19th. I’ll also still donate the $500k to The Good Fight Foundation https://t.co/23hN4AHtoI
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 8, 2020
"We offered him a fight. We got him his own date," White told ESPN. "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.”
UFC 255 on Nov. 21 and UFC 256 on Dec. 12 currently have two title fights apiece, while the Dec. 19 is not expected to be a pay-per-view and could not accommodate a star of McGregor’s stature. White said the promotion would not move any of those scheduled championship fights for McGregor, who announced his retirement for a third time earlier this year.
"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."