Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier trilogy reportedly won’t take place until summer 2021

The trilogy fight between lightweight rivals Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier reportedly won’t take place until summer 2021 at the earliest.

Late Thursday night, the UFC announced that former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmaomedov was officially hanging up his gloves, and now Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira will headline UFC 262 on May 15 for the vacant lightweight belt. Some fans were surprised that the UFC announced that Chandler vs. Oliveira is the title fight and not the trilogy bout between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor. Considering Poirier KOed McGregor at UFC 257 in January, most expected him to be fighting for the 155lbs belt next.

It appears as though the UFC was ready to book the lightweight title bout for the UFC 262 card, and both Poirier and McGregor weren’t ready to fight in May. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, the UFC is now reportedly looking at booking Poirier and McGregor’s trilogy fight for the July 10 pay-per-view — the next PPV available that doesn’t have a headliner.

There was once a hope McGregor-Poirier 3 fight would get done for May 15 but it’s taken longer than hoped/expected so they moved on from that a while ago, sources say. Won’t happen on June 12 (Figueiredo-Moreno on that card), so latest hope is the July 10 card. We’ll see.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 19, 2021

There was once a hope McGregor-Poirier 3 fight would get done for May 15 but it’s taken longer than hoped/expected so they moved on from that a while ago, sources say. Won’t happen on June 12 (Figueiredo-Moreno on that card), so latest hope is the July 10 card. We’ll see.

Poirier and McGregor have fought twice previously, with the pair splitting the two-fight series so far with one knockout win each. The trilogy fight is expected to be a huge pay-per-view blockbuster whenever the promotion is able to get it done. It’s unfortunate that Poirier is not fighting for the belt considering how most fans would say he’s the best lightweight in the world right now, but his priority is the trilogy, and July seems like the earliest date that we will be able to see him step back into the Octagon against McGregor.

Do you think the UFC will get the Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier trilogy booked or will the promotion move on and do something else?