Things move at the UFC as fast as Conor McGregor finished Diego Brandao in the first round by TKO at UFC Fight Night 46 over the past weekend. It now appears that the MMA promotion officially booked the Irishman for UFC 178, which headlines a rematch between light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson.
McGregor’s opponent is American mixed martial artist Dustin Poirier, a featherweight fighter he’s had a beef with for many months among many others in the division like Chad Mendes and UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Poirier paid his dues in MMA since the WEC days and has a professional record of 16 wins and 3 losses.
Right off the bat I’ve been fired up about this guy, I’ve been in this division since the WEC merged. I’ve paid my dues, and I’ve stayed quiet and busted my ass, day in, day out, won the fights I needed to win, and I’ve had some tough fights. I feel I need to be up there. I need to be up there where people are talking about me. [McGregor’s] name and the featherweight title should never come out of anybody’s mouth. I can’t believe the hype he’s getting.
Since Monday, Poirier has been pretty vocal about McGregor saying that he doesn’t even consider him a top ten fighter in the division and feels he would be his “first real fight he’s ever been in.”
UFC 178 is currently slated for September 27, 2014 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
UFC 178 Fight Card
Light Heavyweight Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Bantamweight Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Middleweight Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero
Women’s Bantamweight Cat Zingano vs. Amanda Nunes
Featherweight Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier
Welterweight John Howard vs. Brian Ebersole
Welterweight Patrick Côté vs. Stephen Thompson
