UFC 264 Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier: Start time in Australia, how to watch

Conor McGregor keeps sledging Dustin Poirier’s wife and cameras captured his backstage run-in with another UFC foe.

The feisty Conor McGregor is back to his usual trash-talking best ahead of his hotly-anticipated trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier today.

The pair will face off in the Octagon for a third time with the ledger all square at 1-1.

Watch Poirier v McGregor 3 at UFC 264 live on Main Event, available on Foxtel and Kayo on Sunday 11 July at 12pm AEST. ORDER NOW >

Their previous two fights have both finished early, with McGregor claiming the first fight back at UFC 178 in 2014, while Poirier easily won their rematch in January this year at UFC 257.

The stakes are extremely high for both McGregor and Poirier. UFC promoter Dana White has guaranteed the winner of the fight will get the chance to contend for the lightweight belt against Charles Oliveria.

Both men weighed in at 70kg on Saturday, but there was drama backstage between McGregor and former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, who was also in Las Vegas. Those two were scheduled to fight in 2016 but it never eventuated, as dos Anjos pulled out with injury and was replaced by Nate Diaz.

Cameras captured McGregor and Diaz’s testy run-in, showing there’s no love lost between the pair.

"You bottled it!"

The UFC embedded cameras captured the altercation between RDA and Conor McGregor at the #UFC264 weigh-ins.

(📹 via UFC) pic.twitter.com/Iagl5qQKOm

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) July 10, 2021

The Irishman has been talking a big game in the lead-up to his trilogy fight, both on social media and at the press conference face-off. McGregor has also dragged Poirier’s wife into the pre-fight smack talk in an attempt to get under his skin.

Earlier this week, he posted a screenshot of what appeared to me an Instagram message request from Poirier’s wife Jolie.

When some UFC fans doubted the legitimacy of the screenshot, McGregor doubled-down, posting a screen-recorded video of him supposedly retrieving the message request from Poirier’s wife.

As real as it gets. #shelyintoyoubro#thatswifey#properirishanimalhttps://t.co/dM26Me6SfB

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 9, 2021

At their press conference on Friday, Poirier hit back and said: “You used to be better than that, your trash talking used to be better than that. F***ing weak.”

It was just the beginning as McGregor threw insults throughout.

“I’m gonna dance on your head,” he said. “I’m gonna go through his head, put holes in him and take it off his shoulders, that’s the goal. He’s done here. This is it for him. This is the end of the road for him.”

And the back-and-forth continued on social media after the press conference. McGregor posted a photo to Twitter of himself showing off his ripped physique, to which Poirier replied: “Your trash talk is as thin as your hair these days! See ya soon champ.”

The Irishman hit back straight away, dragging Poirier’s wife into a very personal sledge.

“Your wife wants to see the hair around my d*** and b***s bro. See what that’s like,” McGregor wrote on Twitter.

“It’s real the message request mate, no trash tralk. Man to man, it’s f****ed up! I seen your interview with Mike you think it was fake. It’s not. Have a think on it in the sauna anyway.”.

Where is the fight?

The fight will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in front a 20,000-strong crowd.

It’s a return to the traditional home of UFC after the previous fight between the pair in January took place in the Covid-19 safe haven of Abu Dhabi.

When is the fight?

The preliminary fight card will start on Sunday at 8am (AEST). Coverage of the main card will begin at 12pm with the McGregor-Poirier fight likely to get underway around 1-2pm.

How can I watch the fight?

You can stream the McGregor-Poirier fight, as well as the main card, via Kayo or watch it on Main Event. The pay-per-view price is $54.95.

Tale of the tape

Both McGregor and Poirier are 32 years old and are 5-foot-9-inches tall.

The Irishman just has the edge in his reach of 74 inches compared to Poirier’s 72 inches.

However, the American has a slight advantage of 40.5 inches to 40, which he used to full effect in their previous fight in January with some brutal leg kicks.

Dustin Poirier won his last fight against the Notorious in January. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

What are the betting odds?

Poirier goes in as the slight favourite with the bookies, paying $1.80 in the head-to-head market compared to McGregor at $2.

There are a heap of other betting markets you can try your luck with:

McGregor KO/TKO Round 1: $5.50

McGregor KO: $2.50

McGregor via submission: $23

Poirier via KO/TKO Round 1: $8

Poirier via KO: $3

Poirier via submission: $7

Main card

Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier

Stephen Thompson vs Gilbert Burns

Tai Tuivasa vs Greg Hardy

Irene Aldana vs Yana Kunitskaya

Sean O’Malley vs Kris Moutinho

Preliminary card

Carlos Condit vs Max Griffin

Niko Price vs Michel Pereira

Revin Giles vs Dricus Du Plessis

Ryan Hall vs IIia Topuria

Early preliminaries

Jennifer Maia vs Jessica Eye

Omari Akhmedov vs Brad Tavares

Zhalgas Zhumaglov vs Jerome Rivera

Hu Yaozong vs Alex Amedovski