Dana White Hopes Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier Trilogy Fight Will Be in July

UFC President Dana White told reporters Saturday he's hopeful the third fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier will take place in July.

White said the current plan is to host the fight July 10 in Las Vegas with full fan attendance. The UFC is already planning to host UFC 261 (Jacksonville) and UFC 262 (Houston) at capacity. The promotion has held most of its events for the past year without fans or extremely limited fan attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poirier defeated McGregor via TKO in January's UFC 257 pay-per-view, getting his first win over the former two-division champion after previously losing to him in 2014. The 32-year-old turned down a title opportunity to fight McGregor a third time.

"Dustin wants the rematch [with Conor McGregor]," White told reporters Thursday. "That's smart. That's what he should do. He should take the rematch, take that fight. It's a big fight for him.

"Kid's worked hard his whole life, his whole career to be in a position like this. That's the fight you take. We've been in positions like this before with others who have made the mistake of not taking that fight, and [it was the] biggest mistake of their lives."

Michael Chandler will take on Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 for the vacant lightweight championship. Khabib Nurmagomedov vacated the title after announcing his retirement and White's subsequent failure to talk him into returning for (at least) one more fight.

McGregor's last fight with Poirier did 1.6 million pay-per-view buys, and it's almost certain the UFC will expect a higher number for the third fight in their trilogy. That should lead to one of the best paydays of their respective careers.