Getty Conor McGregor & Dana White
Earlier this week, fighting superstar Conor McGregor accepted the UFC’s offer to fight No. 2 ranked lightweight Dustin Poirier on January 23. “Notorious” accepted the offer publicly on Twitter but also added that he wanted the event to take place at the AT&T Stadium, formerly known as Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.
McGregor tweeted, “I accept, Jan 23rd is on! My goal is to see this fight take place in Cowboy stadium. Proper Style! Jerry Jones is a friend and the stadium can hold our crowd. I will be ready for Texas and Texas will be ready for my fans! Then Manny.”
Jerry Jones, the owner of NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, said he was interested in hosting the January 23 fight. On 105.3 The Fan, Jones said via TMZ, “I’m a real admirer of his. He’s one of the neatest individuals I think I’ve met. Period.”
“[Conor] is special,” Jones said. “It would be quite a day for AT&T Stadium to have him.”
UFC President Dana White Doesn’t Want to Bring an Event to a Stadium Where It Will Only Fill Up to Half Due to COVID-19 Regulations
However, UFC president Dana White isn’t ready to bring McGregor vs. Poirier 2 to an arena in January due to COVID-19 public gathering regulations.
On Friday, White was asked for an update on McGregor vs. Poirier 2 during the UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs. The Korean Zombie pre-fight presser. The UFC president said, “[McGregor] said yes. Dustin said yes. So, now it’s a matter of getting contracts signed.
“Listen, we’ve had a very good relationship with [Jerry] Jones for a long time, and you know, talked about Dallas [Cowboys] stadium forever. I’m not going into any arena where we’re going to fill a quarter of the arena or half the arena, or any of that stuff. So, when crowds are ready to come back, we’ll do crowds again.”
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McGregor Originally Wanted to Fight Poirier in 2020
Last month, Poirier and McGregor decided to fight in a charity exhibition match, but days later, McGregor revealed on Twitter that he had accepted a fight with “The Diamond” in the UFC. He also added a caveat: the match had to happen in 2020.
Earlier this week, White revealed to ESPN that there wasn’t enough room on the UFC’s calendar to fit “Notorious” into a PPV event.
“We offered him a fight, we got him his own date,” White told the outlet. “We didn’t have a date this year. We have everything laid out for this year, with world champions fighting for titles. He wants to fight Dustin Poirier apparently, so we went to [broadcast partner] ESPN and got him his own date. He’s been offered Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23.”
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