UFC 257 Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier: start time, how to stream or watch online & full fight card

Ready for UFC 257? It’s finally time to return Conor McGregor, who fought only once last year, thanks to the disruption of the COVID-19[female[feminine. But now McGregor is back in the Octagon for UFC 257, battling elite lightweight contender Dustin Poirier. The fighters put on weight. Now it’s only McGregor and Poirier left to go for the walk.

With the current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov almost officially retired, this contest is considered by many to be a title eliminator. Most likely the winner will fight for the belt later on the track in 2021, potentially against Charles Oliveira or the winner of Dan Hooker against Michael Chandler.

Nurmagomedov is also looming behind the scenes who Dana White says will watch UFC 257. If anyone does something spectacular, according to reports, he could come back for an additional defense of his UFC lightweight title.

The fight takes place on UFC’s Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.

Start times: Today (Saturday January 23):

• Main card starts at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT)
• Preliminaries begin at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT).
• First preliminaries begin at 6:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. PT)

This is not the first time that this fight has taken place. McGregor beat Poirier comfortably the last time they fought over six years ago at UFC 178, but Poirier has improved dramatically since then. He beat Max Holloway for the interim UFC lightweight championship, and performed well against Nurmagomedov, the current king of lightweight. The Undefeated Nurmagomedov also beat McGregor in 2018.

Despite Poirier’s improvements, most punters clearly have McGregor as the frontrunner in this fight. His destruction of Donald Cerrone in 2020, combined with the style showdown, makes most people see this as a favorable fight for McGregor. Poirier is first and foremost a boxer and McGregor is still the sharpest forward at 155 pounds.

McGregor also appears to be in phenomenal shape and, by most reports, is as driven as he has been since his legendary first run at the featherweight. We could experience something special with this performance. McGregor predicted he will win this fight in 60 seconds.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the UFC’s Inside the Octagon series, which breaks down the game. The McGregor vs Poirier is already live.

But outside of the blockbuster main event, UFC 257 runs deep. Michael Chandler makes his UFC debut against night machine fight Dan Hooker in a compelling co-main event and the undercard is dotted with names like Joanne Calderwood. There are a lot of good games in there.

Weighings

Both main event fighters put on weight. If you missed it, here’s the final face-to-face between McGregor and Poirier …

The card did lose a few fights in the undercard, however. Check below for the full fight card.

How to watch UFC 257

This year, the UFC entered into a new partnership with ESPN. This is great news for the UFC and the expansion of the sport of MMA, but bad news for consumer choice. Especially if you are one of the UFC fans who want to watch UFC live in USA.

It should be noted, however, that UFC increased the price of PPVs starting at UFC 257.

In the US, if you want to know how to watch UFC 257, you’ll only find Fight Night on PPV via ESPN More. The cost structure is a bit confusing, but here are the options for watching UFC on ESPN, according to ESPN website:

• Existing annual ESPN Plus subscribers can order the next UFC fight for $ 70.
• Existing ESPN Plus monthly subscribers will either be able to upgrade to an annual plan and purchase UFC PPV for $ 85, or purchase the option to watch the UFC event on PPV for $ 70 on its own.
• New ESPN Plus subscribers can purchase a UFC PPV (broadcast in HD) event package and an annual recurring ESPN Plus subscription for $ 90. It’s a good thing. The previous bundle gave a saving of 25% but this new bundle is a saving of 35%. The ESPN Plus Annual Subscription ESPN will renew automatically after one year, at the cost of an ESPN Plus Annual Subscription upon auto-renewal.

You can do all of the above at the link below.

MMA fans in the UK can watch UFC 257 exclusively via BT Sport. There are more options if you live in Australia. You can watch UFC 257 via the Main Event on Foxtel. You can also watch on the UFC website or using its app. You can even order using your PlayStation or using the UFC app on your Xbox.