McGregor and Poirier Meet in the Octagon Again: Bookmakers Predict the Winner of the Upcoming UFC Fight

Early this Sunday morning, 24 January, Latvian time, Irish MMA superstar Conor McGregor will fight the 27th bout of his career at the UFC 257 event, facing 32-year-old American Dustin Poirier. However, this fight will not be on as grand a scale as McGregor had imagined a year ago when restarting his athletic career. Nevertheless, McGregor’s performance will undoubtedly attract widespread fan interest once again, as fans eagerly follow whether Poirier will have prepared his revenge for the defeat he suffered six years ago. “Betsafe” bookmakers’ predictions indicate that McGregor is once again the clear favorite for the upcoming fight, with the winner expected to be determined within the first four rounds.

After his controversial defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018, Conor McGregor took yet another break from the UFC, but soon returned with ambitious plans. Last year, he intended to fight three times and reclaim the UFC championship title, but in reality McGregor spent a mere 40 seconds in the octagon, quickly defeating MMA veteran Donald Cerrone, and shortly thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world. The collapse of his plans led McGregor to announce once again that he was ending his career, but after quickly changing his mind again, he is now preparing to fight one of his oldest opponents. McGregor defeated Poirier in the first round back then, winning by technical knockout. The fight lasted only a minute and a half, during which McGregor, as usual, managed to make an impression with his attitude, making it clear that he did not consider his opponent’s punches serious and securing a convincing victory over Poirier.

Six years have now passed since that time, and both fighters have changed noticeably. Much has already been said about the twists and turns of McGregor’s career and private life, and even during the pandemic year he was unable to avoid the attention of the authorities—in September, he was detained in Corsica on suspicion of attempting sexual assault. The case was ultimately not pursued further, but this did not help polish the image of the controversial athlete. McGregor’s MMA record is 22–4, and over the previous four years he had fought only twice. Meanwhile, Dustin Poirier, with a career record of 26–6, cannot come close to claiming the same star status as his opponent, but he has competed much more frequently, fighting nine times over the previous four years and winning seven of those bouts.

After his defeat by McGregor, Poirier nevertheless managed to remain among the elite of combat sports and also secured several significant victories—he defeated Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway, and earned a title fight against Nurmagomedov. He suffered a defeat to Khabib, but this summer he returned to winning ways, beating New Zealander Dan Hooker on points. Poirier is currently included in ESPN’s “Top 10” fighter rankings, where he is ranked second in the world in the lightweight division, while McGregor is not included at all because of his infrequent fights. The champion of this weight division is Nurmagomedov, who announced his retirement in autumn 2020. However, despite the Russian fighter’s decision, there is a belief that UFC management will succeed in persuading him to fight at least once more. Thus, the 24 January bout will be especially important, as its winner is the logical challenger to Khabib or the contender for the next title fight if Khabib does not return to the octagon after all.

“Bookmakers’ predictions indicate that McGregor is the clear favorite for the upcoming fight—his chances of winning are assessed at 74%. Moreover, given that both fighters are much more comfortable on their feet and exchanging strikes than fighting on the mat, it is unlikely that all five rounds will be needed. We expect the winner of the rematch to be determined within the first four rounds, while McGregor is given a 60% chance of winning by knockout or technical knockout. Nevertheless, whatever the outcome of the fight may bring, we believe there will be no shortage of thrilling moments this time either,” comments Valters Rozmanis, a “Betsafe” prediction expert.