Dustin Poirier will ‘be happy’ to put Conor McGregor behind him after UFC 264

Dustin Poirier knows how fruitful a fight with Conor McGregor can be—let alone three of them—but he’s ready to compete and move on to the next chapter of his career.

The third meeting between Poirier and McGregor will headline Saturday’s UFC 264 event, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. After McGregor stopped Poirier in the opening round of their first meeting at UFC 178 in September 2014, “The Diamond” was able to even the score with a second-round stoppage win in their rematch in January at UFC 257.

Poirier joined the UFC’s weigh-in show after being the first to step on the scale—hitting the mark at 156 pounds—and was asked if he’s excited to move on from McGregor.

“I’ll be happy,” Poirier said. “I want to seal the deal and, like I’ve been saying this whole lead up, we owe it to each other. We’re 1-1, we owe it to each other to give both of our bests and find out who is better.

“I think it’s an interesting matchup and one mistake is the end of this fight.”

McGregor has lost two of his last three appearances, which includes a 40-second KO win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 and a submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, but is turning around in under 12 months for the first time since capturing the lightweight title against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 almost five years ago.

“The Notorious” is still the biggest star in the sport, despite his recent run and when asked why he would want to run this one back six-months after getting stopped, Poirier agrees that McGregor’s ego is a big part of that decision.

“What else could it be,” Poirier asked. “The guy has all the money he can spend, he has two belts in two different weight classes at home, he’s [gonna be] a UFC hall-of-famer, he’s done it all. Why is he still fighting? Because he wants to prove that he’s the best, that’s ego. He wants to solidify his greatness even further and that’s a dangerous man.”

The mood has certainly changed between Poirier and McGregor between UFC 257 and this Saturday night. Things were much more respectful and friendly ahead of January’s bout, but things have gotten more personal—more from the McGregor side—which boiled over at Thursday’s UFC 264 press conference.

With a potential lightweight title shot at stake against Charles Oliveira, Poirier is done talking and is ready to fight.

“Let’s go! Let’s go, I’m ready right now.”