UFC 264: Previewing Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier 3 and the Rest of the Card

It's not quite Christmas time.

But you can't blame Dana White if he feels a bit like celebrating.

The UFC czar welcomes the most recognizable face in combat sports back to the Octagon next week when the mixed martial arts conglomerate produces its eighth pay-per-view of 2021.

UFC 264 will be broadcast live by ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 10.

Conor McGregor, who got his aura kicked by Dustin Poirier in their UFC 257 rematch six months ago on Fight Island, will engage in the first trilogy fight of his career when he and the rugged Louisianan get back at it in front of a sellout crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It's the first domestic appearance for the notorious Irishman since January 2020.

McGregor stopped Poirier in one round in their first meeting seven years ago and subsequently won titles in two weight classes and six of eight bouts overall before the second Poirier bout last July.

Their third go-round headlines a 13-bout card that'll also include myriad up-and-comers, familiar veterans and others simply hoping to boost their profiles for the next time around.

The B/R combat sports team took a look at the menu and pulled out a few of the tastier highlights.

                         

UFC 264 Main Card (PPV)

Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor

Gilbert Burns vs. Stephen Thompson

Tai Tuivasa vs. Greg Hardy

Irene Aldana vs. Yana Kunitskaya

Sean O'Malley vs. TBA

               

UFC 264 Preliminary Card

Carlos Condit vs. Max Griffin

Niko Price vs. Michel Pereira Lima

Sean Brady vs. Kevin Lee

Trevin Giles vs. Dricus Du Plessis

Ryan Hall vs. Ilia Topuria

Jennifer Maia vs. Jessica Eye

Omari Akhmedov vs. Brad Tavares

Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs. Jerome Rivera

Hu Yaozong vs. Alen Amedovski

Let's face it, there's not a lot of mystery between these two guys anymore.

Though their relationship has evolved from full-on enmity to grudging respect over seven years and two in-cage meetings, not much has changed competitively between McGregor and Poirier.

Then just 25, Poirier conceded to Yahoo's Kevin Iole that McGregor's all-out verbal assault got the better of him before their UFC 178 bout and impacted his performance once the two got together at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

McGregor won by TKO at 1:46 of Round 1.

Poirier fought an additional 13 times—winning 10 of them, including an interim title bout at 155 pounds—before the January rematch, which began with McGregor striking effectively in the first round but saw Poirier inflict significant damage with powerful kicks to his rival's calves.

Poirier was also able to handle the biggest shots McGregor fired, unlike the first bout.

He began landing solid punches of his own as the second round began, and, with McGregor basically left stationary because of the leg kicks and fatigued after his intense activity in the first, Poirier continued the striking barrage long enough to get a stoppage at 2:32.

The loss was the fifth of McGregor's career, and he's followed each of the previous four with a victory, including a five-round decision over Nate Diaz after he'd been stopped by him five months earlier.

He's claiming motivation created by the surprise defeat will be a decisive factor in No. 3.

"You're gonna see what the Mac is about," he posted on Instagram. 

"Adjust and absolutely f--king destroy!"

Not surprisingly, Poirier disagrees.

He's ranked first at lightweight behind new champion Charles Oliveira—four slots ahead of McGregor—and the trilogy winner will be on the short list of imminent challengers for the Brazilian.

"I'm going to get my hand raised and I'm going to finish Conor McGregor again," he told ESPN MMA.

"You go out there and you knock a guy out like that, it is like I've been fighting for 14 years and overnight you have one performance like that and everything changes. Things start to line up. Opportunities are more open and my phone hasn't stopped ringing. It's been a whirlwind."

Speaking of title shots, the winner here could be on the verge of another one.

Welterweights Gilbert Burns and Stephen Thompson, ranked second and fourth, respectively, will be looking for a performance worthy of a lingering impression when they get together in the co-main slot.

Burns, a 34-year-old Brazilian, is coming off a third-round stoppage loss to champion Kamaru Usman when they met atop the UFC 258 card in Las Vegas. He'd won six in a row and eight fights out of nine heading into that fight, which was his fifth since returning to 170 pounds from a prolonged stint at 155.

Thompson, meanwhile, is four years older at 38 and has won two straight—getting performances bonuses for each—since a desultory 1-3-1 stretch from November 2016 to March 2019. The draw and one of the losses came in consecutive bouts against then-welterweight champ Tyron Woodley at UFC 205 and 209.

The 6'0" American is a classic kickboxer and has scored five stoppage victories in a UFC stint that began nine years ago. The two most recent wins, against Vicente Luque at UFC 244 and Geoff Neal atop a Fight Night show, ended in unanimous decisions with an overall plus-147 margin in strikes, per UFCStats.com.

Burns, a jiu-jitsu ace, will try to make Thompson uncomfortable with pressure and add to his six career wins by knockout or eight by submission. He averages 2.08 takedowns per 15 minutes and has a 35 percent success rate on takedown attempts.

Welcome to another episode of the Greg Hardy Experience.

The ex-NFL player was more novelty than fighter in early UFC appearances, but he has gained at least grudging respect from rivals for the progress he's made.

Just how much farther that progress will get him, though, remains a mystery.

Now 32, Hardy aims to keep his UFC record above .500 when he faces fellow big man Tai Tuivasa in a three-rounder on the pay-per-view main card.

Hardy was stopped in two rounds by Marcin Tybura—now ranked No. 8 at heavyweight—in his most recent fight, dropping his octagonal slate to 4-3 with a no-contest. He'd won two straight entering that bout after dropping a unanimous decision to Alexander Volkov, now No. 5 at heavyweight, in 2019.

Tuivasa, who'll stand three inches shorter at 6'2", has had a similarly tumultuous run in the UFC.

He arrived as an unbeaten pro and won his first three bouts in the Octagon, too, before consecutive losses to Junior dos Santos (TKO 2), Blagoy Ivanov (UD 3) and Sergey Spivak (Sub 2) over 10 months in 2018-19.

Two fights since have ended in first-round stoppage wins, lifting his overall mark to 11-3.

Hardy took to Instagram to call for the match in March, predicting mayhem.

"Let's bang my guy," he wrote to Tuivasa. "Who wants to see (a) real fight. Ass load of bombs and broken faces. Is it just me?"

It might yield a championship date with Amanda Nunes.

It might not.

But when top-five bantamweight contenders Irene Aldana and Yana Kunitskaya get together in the pay-per-view card's second scheduled bout, someone's career is bound to get an uptick.

A 33-year-old from Mexico, the fourth-ranked Aldana will be making her 10th UFC appearance since arriving in 2016.

She's won five of nine, including one each by stoppage and submission, but arrives on the heels of a unanimous-decision loss to ex-champ Holly Holm in a Fight Night main event last October.

Kunitskaya, meanwhile, is still trying to regain the status she arrived with.

A former champion in the Invicta FC promotion, the 31-year-old Russian shared a main event in her initial octagonal appearance but was stopped in one round by Cris Cyborg at UFC 222 in Las Vegas.

So Cyborg held on to the UFC's featherweight title and Kunitskaya went back to the drawing board, and she has since climbed to No. 5 at 135 pounds. She's an impressive 4-1 in five post-Cyborg bouts, including consecutive decisions over Julija Stoliarenko last August and Ketlen Vieira in February.

Sean O'Malley vs. TBA

OK, it was supposed to be Louis Smolka in the spot now occupied by TBA.

But when it comes to the spectacle typically provided by once-beaten bantamweight Sean O'Malley, the opponent often doesn't matter.

Smolka lost his chance to bask in the O'Malley glow thanks to a staph infection, his manager told ESPN, so the promotion will have to fill the void if "Sugar" Sean is to remain in the pay-per-view opener slot.

O'Malley won his first 12 pro bouts before a stoppage loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252. He bounced back in his most recent date, stopping Thomas Almeida in Round 3 of their bout at UFC 260 in March.

                            

Niko Price vs. Michel Pereira Lima

It's probably no coincidence this bout is slotted where it is on the prelim card. 

Because if it's nearly as good as most are expecting, it'll probably help a few fans make the decision to go ahead and order the pay-per-view broadcast.

Niko Price has long been one of the UFC's poster boys for fan-friendly bedlam, earning four performance bonuses since debuting with the promotion in 2016. He's officially won six times in 12 bouts in the Octagon but had a would-be seventh win against Alex Morono overturned after testing positive for marijuana in 2017.

Another result, this time a draw against Donald Cerrone, was also stamped a no-contest after another failed test following their fight last September.

On the other side, Brazilian jiu-jitsu star Michel Pereira Lima was a combat sports world traveler before his UFC arrival, having competed in Brazil, Peru, Russia, Mongolia, Serbia, Japan and South Korea before making both his U.S. and UFC debuts in Rochester, N.Y. in 2019.

He's won three of five bouts since that arrival, including one by KO and another by submission, and earned a corresponding pair of performance bonuses. In his last bout, Pereira won a unanimous decision over Kalinn Williams, ending Williams' eight-bout win streak, last December.