The hype machine is officially rolling for UFC 257 on January 23rd featuring a rematch between former two division champ Conor McGregor and former interim champ Dustin Poirier.
The UFC has spent the past nine months struggling to lay enough track in front of the train to keep the promotion going amidst the craziness of a COVID-centric 2020. So it’s not that much of a surprise that they haven’t focused too much on the return of Conor McGregor at UFC 257 on January 23rd, 2021.
As UFC president Dana White keeps saying every weekend, he’s just trying to get through this year and he’ll figure out all that future stuff later. Well, with UFC 257: McGregor vs. Poirier just six weeks away, the company has finally put together an official promotional video for the fight, and it’s the latest in a series of absolutely banger hype packages.
The two and a half minute video starts off by recapping the first meeting between McGregor and Poirier back in September of 2014, from the animosity and smack talk to Conor’s quick first round destruction of Poirier.
UFC 257: Rewatch McGregor vs Poirier 1
The rematch is official! This is what happened the first time Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier met!
Posted by UFC on Monday, November 23, 2020
Then it shows Poirier’s evolution over the next six years as he completely revamps his striking style to become one of the best fighters in the world at 155.
“He’s done it all right, congratulations to him,” Poirier says. “But now it’s time to fight again.”
McGregor is 6-2 since facing Poirier, while Poirier is 10-2-1 and undoubtedly a tough test for “The Notorious,” whose sole cage fight since a 2018 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov was against a skidding Donald Cerrone. Not that we can fully blame McGregor for that. He fake-retired from the sport in 2020 after the UFC refused to give him a follow up to the “Cowboy” fight, citing his disgust with their unwillingness to work with him. And he did look phenomenal when he last competed.
All in all, a pretty compelling fight. After watching that trailer, we can’t wait. Just another reason to be excited for 2020 to be over.