Cocky, charismatic Conor McGregor no concern for Dustin Poirier

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

It’s not hard to figure out what the UFC sees in Conor McGregor, a cocky, charismatic featherweight straight out of Dublin who seems like he was born to sell tickets.

On a recent media tour in Los Angeles to promote Saturday night’s mixed martial arts bout against Dustin Poirier (16-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) at UFC 178 (10 p.m. ET, pay-per-view), the bearded Irishman strutted around town in sunglasses and a three-piece suit, speaking in sound bites and oozing confidence. Somehow, he even made a bowtie look like a good idea.

But while there’s no doubt that McGregor (15-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) has style, does he have substance?

The UFC certainly seems to be banking on it. In a promotional video released by the fight promotion this week, McGregor can be seen kicking his feet up and dining on room service alongside his boss, UFC President Dana White, in a Las Vegas hotel suite. He talks about the UFC owners in interviews as if they are part benefactors and part best friends. He dismisses opponents with a mixture of scorn and pity, these poor “journeymen” scratching out a living in the basement while he’s cloaked in luxury up in the penthouse.

It’s more than a little confounding to Poirier, who says he struggles to figure out how much of his opponent’s pre-fight talk is bravado and how much he actually believes.

“I see these interviews, Conor saying I’m scared of him,” Poirier tells USA TODAY Sports. “Man, that’s ridiculous. I just don’t know what he’s thinking. … If he doesn’t think that he’s going to be in a hellacious fistfight with a man, then he’s a dummy. If he goes to sleep at night thinking that he’s going to walk through me, he’s an idiot.”

And yet, to hear McGregor tell it, that’s more or less exactly what he thinks. Rather than talking about how or if he’ll beat Poirier, he explains how a quick finish would more advantageous to his move up the ranks than a win in the later rounds. He expects it to be “easy,” he says, insisting that Poirier “doesn’t impress me at all.”

On one hand, it’s exactly what the UFC likes about him. McGregor talks a good game, which is handy in a sport in which winning is only one part of the formula for success. The other part lies in convincing people to pay for the privilege of watching you work, and so far McGregor has excelled at it.

But since McGregor’s yet to face a ranked opponent in the UFC, those in Poirier’s camp say they can’t wonder whether the Irishman isn’t just one big hype bubble waiting to burst.

“We’re going to find out,” says Marcus “Conan” Silveira, one of Poirier’s coaches at Florida’s American Top Team gym. “I won’t promise you that Dustin will win, but I will promise you that Conor is going to find himself in his first real fight in the UFC.”

In the meantime, it’s McGregor who’s getting the star treatment from the UFC, dining on room service omelets while Poirier settles for homemade protein shakes. But whether his bosses know it or not, Poirier insists, they’ve done him a favor with this booking. If he beats McGregor, the luster of the UFC’s golden boy could become his, or so he hopes.

“They’ve given him favorable matchups so far, I think,” Poirier says. “But this is the place with the best guys in the world. You can only protect someone in the UFC for so long.”

For more on UFC 178, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.