Five Years After the Dustin Poirier Trilogy, UFC Prepares for Conor McGregor’s Next Chapter

It has been five years since Conor McGregor last stepped inside the Octagon in a fight that appeared, for many, to define not just a rivalry but an era. On July 10, 2021, at UFC 264, McGregor’s trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier ended in a way nobody wanted to see: a gruesome leg injury that halted the contest with McGregor on the canvas and the question of his future suddenly hanging over the sport. UFC’s own retrospective now frames that moment as the last image of McGregor in active competition before a long pause that stretched into a new UFC era.

In its look back, UFC places McGregor’s absence in the context of how much the promotion has changed since that night. The UFC of 2026 is not the same landscape it was in mid-2021, whether measured by which fighters were thriving, which styles were shaping main events, or how the promotion built its next generation of headliners. UFC’s article emphasizes that the division of attention has shifted, but the allure of McGregor, as a global attraction and a recognizable face beyond MMA’s usual footprint, has not gone away.

The UFC piece also underscores that the sport has produced new champions and future stars in the half decade since McGregor last fought. Even without tying the story to any specific opponent or event date, the framing matters: the promotion’s timeline is clear, and so is the implication that when McGregor returns, it will be into a division and a business model that have both moved on. In other words, his return is not just about one fighter coming back. It is about whether his unique star power can reinsert itself into a sport that has already crowned different heroes.

UFC’s retrospective characterizes July 10, 2021 as a turning point that ended a trilogy that had already carried heavy emotional weight for fans and the fighters involved. The rivalry with Poirier was built on momentum and adjustments, and the trilogy finish at UFC 264 turned into a different kind of storyline, dominated by injury and recovery rather than tactical resolution. UFC’s acknowledgement of the “final image” of McGregor inside the Octagon makes the moment feel more like a historical marker than a simple calendar fact.

The promotion’s language, while still cautious, treats McGregor’s potential return as a major storyline because of what the sport has learned to do in his absence. The UFC has continued to stage events, cultivate contenders, and expand its roster of elite-level fighters. That means a McGregor return, when it comes, would likely be measured against a deeper and more modern field, with champions and top challengers established after his departure.

For fans and observers, the key takeaway is not a promise of timing, but the gravity of context. UFC is essentially telling readers that the five-year gap has not erased McGregor’s place in the sport’s shared memory. What comes next is still the central uncertainty: how McGregor’s comeback story will connect to the current title picture, and whether the rivalry energy that once defined his tenure can be recreated in today’s UFC.

The question now becomes less “will he return” and more “what will his return look like.” UFC’s retrospective sets up a spotlight on the possibility that McGregor’s next appearance would land in a transformed promotion, among different championship-level players, under a different public rhythm of events. If UFC continues to lift the curtain on McGregor’s comeback without naming specifics, the anticipation will remain, but the stakes will be clear.