This Saturday night, it is all going down at Fight Island in Abu Dhabi at UFC 257, as Conor McGregor makes his long-awaited return to the octagon to face Dustin Poirier. This rematch is seven years in the making as these fighters squared off in 2014 back at UFC 178, which resulted in a first-round knockout victory for McGregor. As with every McGregor fight week, UFC 257 has a special feel to it that will surely not disappoint.

In terms of the matchup, both fighters have made improvements by leaps and bounds over the past seven years. Additionally, this fight will be held at 155 pounds, as opposed to the first time they faced each other at 145 pounds. McGregor is coming off the first-round knockout victory over Donald Cerrone in January last year. It took just 40 seconds for McGregor to rebound off the loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov and get back in the win column. He is typically a fast starter, as 19 of his 22 professional wins have come by knockout inside the first two rounds. He predicted he would knock out Poirier in the first round back in 2014 and is predicting a knockout within 60 seconds for this Saturday.

As much as the circumstances have changed since then, it is hard for me to envision the rematch playing out much differently. Poirier came in with a kick-heavy approach, which may have paid off if the fight got extended, but that typically does not happen in McGregor fights. Additionally, Poirier is outmatched on his feet in terms of power and technicality, and I highly doubt he tries to take this fight to the ground or that he would even be able to do so. Lastly, I strongly favor the durability of McGregor, who has never been knocked out and hardly even wobbled in his entire career whereas Poirier was knocked out twice, with McGregor being the first to knock him out. In his last fight against Dan Hooker, Poirier was getting hit a lot in the early rounds and if he is going to eat those power shots from McGregor, then he is likely going to sleep.

As the betting favorite at (-300), there just is not much value on McGregor. I would look to target the knockout prop (-170) and first-round knockout prop at (+175), as that is his most likely path to victory. I favor McGregor in nearly every aspect of this matchup and think he knocks him out inside the first round again as promised.