ONLY THREE DAYS after defeating Brazilian Diego Brandao in emphatic style in front of a sell-out O2 arena in Dublin, official news broke that Irish fighting sensation Conor McGregor has been booked to fight on the UFC 178 card against American Dustin Poirier last night.
UFC match-makers wasted no time in scheduling McGregor’s next bout, following a heated exchange of words between the two fighters through media outlets immediately after McGregor’s first stoppage of Diego Brandao.
The news came on the same day as McGregor officially entered the top-10 of the UFC’s featherweight division, jumping two spots and pushing fighters Jeremy Stephens and Dennis Bermudez down the pecking order. The now 10th-ranked McGregor will take on the sixth-ranked Poirier in a three-round bout on 27 September in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Similarly to McGregor, Poirier boasts first-round victories over both Diego Brandao and Max Holloway. Poirier represents a serious jump in opponent-calibre for McGregor, who has yet to face a top-10 UFC fighter. Currently on a three-fight winning streak, Poirier’s only losses in his last 11 fights have been to fellow top-10 fighters Cub Swanson (February, 2013) and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung (May,2012), a fight for which he and “The Zombie” both won “Fight of the Year” from ESPN and the UFC.
A win over Poirier at UFC 178 would cement McGregor as a firm title contender in the UFC featherweight division. Admittedly, UFC president Dana White has repeatedly voiced his concerns over rushing talented fighter into high-profile bouts before they’re ready. However, given the commercial viability that McGregor represents, it would appear that both White and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta have decided to fast-track McGregor’s progress through the division.
UFC 178 will be headlined by light-heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, in a highly-anticipated rematch against swede Alexander Gustafsson. Indeed, with the retirement of the organisation’s biggest trash talker (Chael Sonnen) and the defeat of their most exciting fighter (Anderson Silva), in Conor McGregor it would seem the UFC have landed a potential panacea to their waning pay-per-view numbers. Quickly becoming a fan-favourite around the world, the charismatic Irishman can back up his smack-talk with exciting victories in the Octagon, a commodity that is currently in short-supply.
Undoubtedly, with 2014 UFC PPV purchases down by a million, from 2.2 million to 1.1million for the same period in 2013, the organisation is looking to secure undecided buyers for the September card, by pairing McGregor with the UFC’s only remaining marquee fighter, Jon Jones.
With a just under 11 weeks to prepare for the his next bout, McGregor will have little time to rest on his laurels, and with Poirier not shirking the pre-fight smack-talk from McGregor you can be assured that the build up to UFC 178 will be every bit as good, if not better, then what we experienced prior to UFC fight Night Dublin.
John Cannon started martial arts at the age of 8 and is an active member of DCU mixed martial arts club. Follow John on Twitter @Kanurocks