Conor McGregor

As Conor McGregor prepares to put a bow on his trilogy with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on Saturday, the Notorious One is also looking at a third fight with another opponent. 

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, McGregor said a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz "must happen."

"I look forward to the day," he added.

After fighting at lightweight for his entire UFC career, McGregor agreed to move up to middleweight in 2016 for a bout with Diaz. 

Diaz came out on top in the first match at UFC 196 by submitting McGregor in the second round. It was the Irish superstar's first loss in a mixed martial arts match since 2010. 

The two agreed to a rematch that occurred at UFC 202 in August 2016. McGregor got a measure of revenge in a close fight. He was awarded a majority decision win with two judges scoring the bout 48-47 and the third ruling it a 47-47 draw. 

Since his first bout with Diaz, McGregor has gone just 3-3 in his last six mixed martial arts contests. 

Diaz has lost three of his last four fights overall, including a unanimous-decision defeat against Leon Edwards at UFC 263 on June 12. 

Conor McGregor told reporters at the UFC 264 press conference that he wants to fight UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira if he's able to take down Dustin Poirier on Saturday.

Per ESPN's Marc Raimondi, McGregor said he wants the hypothetical Oliveira bout to occur at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

McGregor and Poirier are headlining UFC 264, which will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

By virtue of a second-round TKO over Michael Chandler in May, Oliveira won the vacant UFC lightweight title, which was vacated after undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov retired.

Oliveira would be tough for either Poirier or McGregor to beat. He's on a nine-match winning streak, and eight of those fights ended with a submission or knockout. The lone exception was a unanimous-decision win over Tony Ferguson.

For now, though, Poirier and McGregor are set to battle in a crucial trilogy fight Saturday. The two have fought twice before: McGregor beat Poirier via first-round TKO in Sept. 2014 but lost to him by second-round TKO last January.

McGregor had a comment about that defeat, per MMAFighting.com, referencing ex-heavyweight boxing champion Buster Douglas and his stunning win as a 42-1 underdog over Mike Tyson in Feb. 1990:

Poirier, the former interim lightweight champion, is 27-6 with one no-contest for his career. His only loss in his past seven fights was to Khabib in Sept. 2019. McGregor, the former featherweight and lightweight champion, is 22-5 lifetime. 

Poirier is the No. 1 contender for the lightweight belt, while McGregor is listed fifth.

Conor McGregor continues to take swipes at Khabib Nurmagomedov despite his one-time rival walking away from MMA following the death of his father in 2020. 

Speaking to ESPN's Stephen A. Smith ahead of Saturday's trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, McGregor said Khabib has "done nothing in the sport" (NSFW language):

It's quite an assessment of Khabib's undefeated career (29-0, 8 KOs) that features a 2018 victory over McGregor via neck-crank submission. 

Among some of the other notable victories on Nurmagomedov's resume: back-to-back title defenses against Poirier and Justin Gaethje, a unanimous-decision win against Rafael Dos Anjos and a Performance of the Night takedown of Edson Barboza. 

The sum total of Nurmagomedov's success led him to retire as UFC's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter. 

McGregor just isn't buying it. 

He and the Russian have goaded each other throughout their careers, with the most infamous instance occurring at UFC 223 media day when McGregor attacked a bus carrying Khabib in April 2018. Moments after defeating McGregor at UFC 229 that October, Nurmagomedov jumped out of the Octagon in an attempt to confront the Irishman's cornerman, Dillon Danis. 

Now just days away from attempting to take the rubber match from Poirier, McGregor is once again hyping up his career and downplaying someone else's. He'll need to back that up on Saturday or face legacy-defining consequences. 

A loss to Poirier would hand McGregor consecutive defeats for the first time in his career. The 32-year-old is 3-3 in his last six UFC fights and attempting to take back the lightweight title he lost to Khabib in 2018.

Conor McGregor said his focus had already shifted to a potential boxing match against Manny Pacquiao before his January fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, which is why he suffered a second-round knockout loss.

"I pitied the man," McGregor told ESPN's Stephen A. Smith in an interview released Thursday. "I was looking past him. I had a Manny Pacquiao camp in place."

McGregor beat Poirier at UFC 178 in September 2014 with a dominant first-round technical knockout, and he explained his respect for the 32-year-old American didn't allow him to enter the rematch with the same level of intensity. He told Smith that's no longer the case ahead of Saturday's trilogy fight.

"I'm coming in to kill this man," the former featherweight and lightweight champion said. "I'm coming in with vicious intent here. Mortar shots. What else can I say? That's the way it is. ... I'm looking to take this man out cold."

Meanwhile, the Pacquiao boxing match never came to fruition, and the 32-year-old Irish sensation confirmed boxing is "not even on the radar at the minute." Instead, he's focused on earning a title shot against lightweight titleholder Charles Oliveira by taking care of business against Poirier.

"I am a nice guy," McGregor told Smith. "It's just about not translating it into the game. You can't be nice in this business. No matter what. ... In the most ruthless business of all, I am the most ruthless."

"The Notorious" was one of MMA's most dominant fighters along with one of the biggest draws in all of combat sports at his peak, as he compiled a 19-2 record to start his career.

While his bouts still attract plenty of attention, in large part because he's able to sell fights by building hype like few others can, his performance has dipped. He's posted a 3-3 record in his last six matches and has only entered the Octagon three times since November 2016.

The question heading into Saturday's fight is whether a renewed focus solely on MMA can vault him back to that elite level.

As for Poirier, he explained to ESPN's Brett Okamoto he's hopeful the trilogy fight turns into a brutal battle because he believes that's when his talent can shine through most:

I want my blood-and-guts war. I want to question my will to fight. I want to be uncomfortable from the first second of the first round. I want to find out all this stuff. That's the thing about fighting, the only thing that's real is when that bell rings. It's the only real part about fighting that I love anymore. Everything else is who can get likes on Instagram. It's all fake.

But the real part is when that bell rings, it's 100 percent now. I want to show him that and find that out about him. Talk it up, say this and that, but let's find out who really wants to fight. Because I know I can count on me.

UFC 264, with McGregor vs. Poirier as the main event, will take place Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Despite losing to Dustin Poirier in his most recent fight, Conor McGregor is confident he will get revenge Saturday at UFC 264.

In an interview with Mike Bohn of Rolling Stone, McGregor said: "I'm going to knock him out. Without question. I'm the most dangerous I've ever been; I'm the most focused I've ever been. And I'm going to take him out. He won't have any way to deal with what I'm bringing on Saturday, and that's it."

McGregor and Poirier last met at UFC 257 in January, and it was Poirier who pulled off the upset with a second-round technical knockout, avenging a loss to McGregor at UFC 178 in 2014.

The 32-year-old McGregor is one of the most accomplished fighters in UFC history, as he has a 22-5 record to his credit and has won the UFC featherweight and lightweight championships.

While he remains a top draw as well, success hasn't been as easy to come by for the Irishman in recent years.

Over his past six fights, McGregor is just 3-3, with losses to Nate Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Poirier. Prior to the loss to Diaz at UFC 196 in 2016, McGregor was on a 15-fight winning streak in MMA.

Unlike McGregor, the 32-year-old Poirier is in the midst of the best run of his career over the past few years. With the exception of a loss to Khabib at UFC 242 in 2019, Poirier has not lost a fight since falling to Michael Johnson in September 2016.

The Diamond is 7-1 with one no-contest in his past nine outings, beating notable names like McGregor, Max Holloway, Justin Gaethje and Anthony Pettis along the way.

McGregor's comments in the Rolling Stone interview were in stark contrast to what top-ranked UFC welterweight Colby Covington said about him this week.

Appearing on What the Heck with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Covington picked Poirier to beat McGregor before adding:

"You're beating a guy that has no motivation left in the sport. And I love Conor. He's had a great career, done great things in the sport, but your time's up, too. It's obvious that you're not training every day, it's obvious you're not working on your craft, it's obvious you're working on other business deals to line your pockets and pad your bank account.

"It's just not the same hungry Conor from a couple of years ago. It's a different Conor towards the end of his journey and it's not saying much to beat him anymore."

Despite McGregor's recent struggles, UFC President Dana White is bullish about his chances of putting on a good performance Saturday.

Speaking to The Mac Life (h/t Damon Martin of MMA Fighting), White said he believed McGregor is "taking this fight a lot more serious than he did the last fight."

If that is true, McGregor has a chance to get back on track and in the UFC lightweight title hunt, but another loss would force him to make a long climb back up the ladder, and it is unclear if he would be interested in attempting that climb.

Dana White has a message for Dustin Poirier: Expect a different Conor McGregor this time around.

The UFC president told The Mac Life that McGregor looks far more focused coming into Saturday's bout than he did in his loss to Poirier in January. 

“Conor looked damn good in that first round [against Poirier]. I don’t know how well he prepared for that fight,” White said. “I don’t know what he did. I don’t know the difference between his training camp for that fight or this fight.

“I can tell you this: From what I can see, he’s taking this fight a lot more serious than he did the last fight. He’s basically shut down. He’s in his own little world doing his thing. He feels like the old Conor McGregor.”

Poirier defeated McGregor via TKO in the second round of their fight in January. A heavy underdog coming into the bout, Poirier took advantage of McGregor's seeming disregard of his legs and peppered him with a series of leg kicks to slow him down before decking him with a pair of right-handed punches to get a stoppage.

McGregor has leaned heavily on a boxing-oriented style since his 2017 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. While the strategy worked against Donald Cerrone, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Poirier were essentially able to pick McGregor apart.

A motivated McGregor could be dangerous. It's fair to point out that the 33-year-old is fighting or his relevance in the sport. A second straight loss to Poirier would be his third in four fights since returning to UFC in 2018 and send him plummeting in the championship rankings.

There's no question McGregor is the most famous face UFC has ever produced. On Saturday, we'll find out whether he still has the skills to be considered among the best in the promotion. 

Beating Conor McGregor has long been considered a huge accomplishment in UFC, but top-ranked welterweight Colby Covington doesn't view it that way anymore.

Appearing on What the Heck with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Covington was asked to predict the upcoming UFC 264 main event between McGregor and his former American Top Team teammate, Dustin Poirier.

In reference to Poirier, Covington said, "Yeah, he'll probably beat Conor again. But, I mean, what is that saying?"

Covington continued by expressing his belief that McGregor is no longer the same fighter he once was and isn't committed to being the top fighter in the sport:

"You're beating a guy that has no motivation left in the sport. And I love Conor. He's had a great career, done great things in the sport, but your time's up, too. It's obvious that you're not training every day, it's obvious you're not working on your craft, it's obvious you're working on other business deals to line your pockets and pad your bank account.

"It's just not the same hungry Conor from a couple of years ago. It's a different Conor towards the end of his journey and it's not saying much to beat him anymore."

When McGregor and Poirier clash Saturday night, it will be a rematch of their bout at UFC 257 in January.

Poirier somewhat surprisingly won that fight by second-round technical knockout, avenging his first-round TKO loss to McGregor at UFC 178 in 2014.

That win in 2014 was part of a 15-fight winning streak that helped McGregor become one of the biggest stars in the history of UFC.

Success has been more difficult for him to come by since then, as McGregor is just 3-3 in his past six fights with losses to Nate Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Poirier.

McGregor has stepped away from the sport on a couple of occasions in recent years, going almost two years between fights from 2016-18 and over one year between fights from October 2018 to January 2020.

Meanwhile, Poirier is on the best roll of his career with just one loss in his past nine fights, that being to Khabib.

During his hot streak, Poirier has beaten the likes of McGregor, Dan Hooker, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje, Anthony Pettis and Jim Miller.

With another win over McGregor, Poirier could be next in line for a UFC lightweight title fight against Charles Oliveira in the near future.