Dana White: Conor McGregor ‘taken this fight more seriously’ than he did in rematch against Dustin Poirier

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One of the biggest questions UFC President Dana White has asked about Conor McGregor and his fighting future is how much he devote to the sport now that he’s sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars.

After his 2017 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather that netted McGregor more than $100 million in salary, White wondered if he’d actually come back to compete again.

After McGregor suffered a second-round TKO loss to Dustin Poirier back in January, White couldn’t help but wonder if the Irish star’s lavish lifestyle – including his arrival at the event in Abu Dhabi at 300 feet – was up for grabs. Yacht – Maybe he caught him when it was time to fight again.

Now just days away from McGregor’s return to UFC 264 where he will face Poirier for a third time, White believes he sees a different hunger and fire in the former Second Division champ as he seeks revenge for that loss earlier this year.

Connor looked good in that first round الجولة [against Poirier]. “I don’t know how to prepare for that fight,” White told MacGregor’s Mac Life. “I don’t know what he did. I don’t know the difference between his training camp for that fight or this fight.

“I can tell you this – from what I can see, he’s taking this fight more seriously than he did in the last fight. He’s basically closed off. He’s in his own little world doing his job. He feels like old Conor McGregor.”

While MacGregor has never shied away from bragging about what his vast fortune afforded him in terms of lifestyle, the now 32-year-old dad has kept his head buried in a training camp in order to prepare for his Poiret since their battle. Make it official.

McGregor also escalated his trash talk toward Poirier after the Lightweights were friendly toward each other while smiling and shaking hands during each interaction before the last fight.

White knows McGregor will need something to change in order to turn the tide against Poirier in the treble, because the No. 1 lightweight in the world according to MMA Fighting, is coming to take his head off Saturday night.

“Only Connor knows what Connor needs to adjust, fix, and do,” White said. “I can tell you this, you know that Bourier trains in Florida with the savages every day. He wants this fight worse than anything.

“You have to look hungry. There is no doubt that Poirier must be more hungry than McGregor. He wants all the things that McGregor has.”

To close the book on his rivalry with McGregor this weekend, Pourier actually lost a title shot after the belt was cleared following Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement.

As much as championship might mean in the grand scheme of things, White believes Pourier made the right call to pass the title fight in order to eliminate McGregor for a third time.

“He was criticized for taking this fight and not fighting the title fight. He positively did the right thing,” White said. “That’s the fight.

“It was the right thing to do. Because if he can win on Saturday night, he wins the treble against McGregor and then goes on to fight for the title anyway. A lot of people know who he is after this fight.”

Most likely, McGregor vs. Poirier 3 is the next contender for the lightweight title regardless of the winner, although White learned his lesson in making any declarative statements before the fights actually took place.

“I think so,” White replied when asked if McGregor or Bowerer would be next for the title. “No stone has been set. Anything could happen after the fight. Who knows but that makes sense.”

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