The biggest event of the year so far is here as Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier settle the score in the UFC 264 headliner. Cageside Press has its picks ready.
| Writer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Doherty (66-44) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Justin Gibbons (68-47) | | | | | |
| Ryan Fortune (67-48) | |  |  | | |
| Alex Behunin (55-41) | | | | |  |
| Doug Murray (62-48) | | | | | |
| Eddie Law (18-15) | | | |  | |
| Joe McDonagh (55-47) | | | | | |
| Gabriel Gonzalez (62-53) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (55-56) | | | | | |
| Dylan Bowker (52-54) | | | | | |
Nearly seven years after they first crossed paths in the Octagon, Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier will complete their trilogy in the main event of UFC 264. Poirier has been more successful of late, with the one loss in his last eight fights coming in a championship bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov. McGregor is 1-2 since winning the lightweight title in 2016, falling to Poirier in January.
The co-main event is an excellent welterweight scrap between top contenders Gilbert Burns and Stephen Thompson. Burns recently had his six-fight win streak snapped by the champion Kamaru Usman, whom Burns had knocked down before losing in the second round. After a surprising 2019 loss to Anthony Pettis, Thompson has rebounded with huge wins over Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal to re-establish his contender status.
Tai Tuivasa looks to hand Greg Hardy a second consecutive loss. Tuivasa has heated back up recently after a three-fight skid washed out the excitement from the hot start to his UFC tenure, knocking out his last two opponents in the first round. Hardy bit off more than he can chew again in his last fight, losing to top-10 heavyweight Marcin Tybura to snap a two-fight win streak.
Top-five bantamweights Irene Aldana and Yana Kunitskaya square off on the main card. Aldana, who missed weight for the bout, had won five of six fights before running into former champion Holy Holm last time out. Kunitskaya has won four of her last five fights and is facing an opponent who missed weight for the second time in a row.
Sean O’Malley faces short-notice debuting opponent Kris Moutinho to open the UFC 264 main card. O’Malley was supposed to fight Louis Smolka, looking to extend his win streak to two after knocking out Thomas Almeida last time out. Moutinho is a veteran of the east coast MMA circuit, fighting in CES and CFFC. He stopped his last two opponents before getting a surprise call-up to the UFC.
