UFC 264: McGregor vs Poirier III - Card Preview - 7/10/21

Are you as pumped for this one as I am!? Is there anything better than a packed arena, headlined by Conor McGregor? This will be the first time since this pandemic began where T-Mobile Arena is going to be allowing fans back in for a UFC event and you just know the place will be going nuts. With no card on July 3rd, the UFC will be focusing all of it's hype/marketing efforts on this one which takes place on July 10th.

It's hard to believe it's only been around 6 months since Poirier knocked out McGregor in Abu Dhabi to even the score (McGregor won the first match at featherweight back in 2014). If you look back at Poirier's last pile of fights, it's absolutely littered with "Fight of the Night" and "Performance of the Night" bonuses as the guy is one of the most exciting lightweights on the planet. And we get to see him matched up against Conor McGregor for the third time. Conor doesn't really need any sort of introduction as he's become a worldwide superstar so if you clicked this article you were probably wondering "who else is on the Conor card"? You can check that out below.

The co-main event, Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson looks to make it 3 in a row against Gilbert Burns. Burns is fresh off a TKO loss to welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman. That should be a fun stylistic match up as very few fighters can figure out how to overcome the Karate attack of Wonderboy.

Tai Tuivasa is being rewarded for his two straight KO victories with a main event slot for this one. He takes on NFL'er turned fighter, Greg Hardy. Rounding out the main card, the UFC is giving "Suga" Sean O'Malley a layup as he takes on Louis Smolka. Edit: Smolka pulled out and although a bunch of decent names offered to step up against O'Malley (and get widespread attention being on a Conor card), the UFC paired O'Malley against newcomer,Kris Moutinho - THATS how bad they want to build this kid up.All should be entertaining and will whet fight fans' appetites for the main event.

Feature prelim has the return of "The Natural Born Killer", Carlos Condit as he looks to continue his career resurgence by making it 3 straight. He takes on Max Griffin who is fresh off a performance of the night. I'd recommend tuning in to Nico Price and Michel Pereira as well. Price is a high octane slugger and Pereira has been seen doing anything from superman punching off the cage to outright backflips to land on downed opponents. It's madness.

As always, bout order and times scheduled to change but here's how it's looking so far. Tune in after weigh-ins for our betting articles right here for the main card and here for the undercard.