Just days after Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier appeared to agree to a exhibition charity fight, UFC president Dana White claims to have offered both fighters an official lightweight bout.
"We offered Dustin and Conor a fight, so we're waiting to hear back from them both," White told Barstool Sports. The proposed date is January 23.
According to ESPN's UFC sources, the promotion has sent a physical contract to McGregor. Meanwhile, McGregor's sources confirmed to ESPN's Ariel Helwani that he was offered the fight with Poirier, but reaffirmed the Irish superstar's desire to fight Manny Pacquiao and have a charity sparring match with Poirier.
It's unclear what the actual status on the charity match is, hwoever. McGregor proposed the exhibition on Monday and on Wednesday, Poirier wrote on Twitter, "I accept." However, no additional details were provided. Poirier told ESPN that he had not yet received a contract from the UFC for a bout against McGregor.
McGregor (22-4) hasn't fought since his 40-second knockout of Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in January. Leading up to the fight, the former champion said he was hoping to fight multiple times in 2020. He recently voiced his frustration with the UFC's inability to book him a fight and took to social media to share text messages between himself and Dana White regarding a potential matchup with MMA veteran Diego Sanchez. White maintains that the UFC offered to make McGregor a replacement fighter for April's lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, which McGregor declined.