Arguably the most anticipated fight of the summer arrives this weekend at UFC 291, and it’s not even a title fight.
Well, not exactly. Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje 2 does have a belt on the line — the “BMF” championship, a rather inspired bit of marketing cooked up for the Jorge Masvidal-Nate Diaz fight in 2019. Masvidal won that fight, lost his next four, and retired, walking away to this point the only BMF (you know what it means) champ in UFC history.
That changes on Saturday, as one of Poirier and Gaethje, who fought in an instant classic in their first meeting in 2018, will earn the title — though a more fitting trinket for the fight might be a “Most Violent” or “All-Violence” title. Because quite frankly, that is what this fight is all about. Both fighters have admitted that there’s a very good chance both of them end up in hospital following Saturday’s encounter. Both know exactly what they are getting into.
Both have identical records since their first meeting, coincidentally, leaving them ranked #3 and #2 in the 155lb division, behind only Charles Oliveira and champ Islam Makhachev. And aside from the BMF belt, the winner of this rematch for the ages is expected to land the next spot in line at lightweight, as Makhachev and Oliveira run things back this October.
Ahead of UFC 291, tune in for Thursday’s pre-fight press conference, which gets underway at 7PM ET — a live stream is available in the embed above.
