Dana White believes Dustin Poirier is 'smart' to take a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor over a shot at becoming UFC lightweight champion.
The American pulled off a shock win against McGregor in January and was in line for a title fight after Khabib Nurmagomedov relinquished the belt last week.
But he has opted to face the Dubliner for a third time, with Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler set to clash for the belt on May 15.
“Dustin wants the rematch [with Conor McGregor],” White said during the UFC 260 pre-fight press conference. “That’s smart. That’s what he should do. He should take the rematch, take that fight. It’s a big fight for him.
“Kid’s worked hard his whole life, his whole career to be in a position like this. That’s the fight you take. We’ve been in positions like this before with others who have made the mistake of not taking that fight, and [it was the] biggest mistake of their lives.”
The UFC President added that the trilogy bout could take place in July.
Meanwhile, John Kavanagh reckons that McGregor primarily focusing on boxing in his camp for his fight with Poirier led to his UFC 257 loss.
“I describe it as a game of spinning plates,” Kavanagh told BT Sport.
“You’re spinning the boxing plate and you realise the wrestling plate is about to stop, so you have to go spin that one, and then you have to go spin the jiu-jitsu one, you have to spin the kickboxing one.
“We got a bit obsessed with the boxing one. There was talk of a big boxing fight after that. Our bad, our mistake, our fault – no one to blame.
"We just have to make sure we have to keep spinning that kickboxing plate and all the other aspects of MMA and get ready for the rematch.”
