Conor McGregor, the UFC superstar, announced on Twitter that he intends to fight at least twice more in 2021.
Conor McGregor also hosted a Twitter Q&A in which he welcomed questions from his friends and supporters. The #asknotorious session answered hundreds of queries from people all over the globe.
After more than a year out, the Irishman returned to the octagon on January 24, 2021, at UFC 257. His most recent appearance was at UFC 246 on January 18, 2020, where he knocked out Donald Cerrone in the first round of a welterweight fight.
Conor McGregor was defeated by Dustin Poirier via TKO at UFC 257. In the post-fight chat, 'Notorious' cited a lack of octagon action as one of the triggers for his demise. He insisted that we will see plenty of him within the octagon, and it seems that Conor McGregor is already committed to competing several times this year.
Who will Conor McGregor face for the whole of 2021?
'Notorious' will meet 'The Diamond' in their trilogy bout at UFC 264 on July 10, 2021. Dustin Poirier is the reigning UFC lightweight champion. He turned down a championship match with Charles Oliveira in favor of a series with McGregor.
Charles Oliveira will now challenge Michael Chandler for the vacated lightweight championship at UFC 262 on May 15, 2021.
Dustin Poirier's game strategy seems to be to win the money battle against Conor McGregor, hold the number one ranking, and then fight for the belt. Although it seems to be McGregor's strategy as well.
Conor McGregor is actually 1-2 at lightweight and urgently wants a victory to remain competitive in the category. Given that he is facing the number one challenger, a victory over Poirier will almost definitely guarantee McGregor a title shot.
Conor McGregor will compete for the number one challenger position in July, and if he succeeds, he could fight for the lightweight title later this year.
'Notorious' recently posted that he'd prefer to win the lightweight title before moving on to the welterweight belt. However, if it were to happen, that would most definitely happen in 2022.
Conor McGregor's decision to compete twice more in 2021 seems to be perfectly aligned with his lightweight championship ambitions. The path to the championship, however, will not be straightforward. He has to go through Dustin Poirier once more.