The Minnesota Mild threw every trick they could lift from Whiny Pete DeBoer’s playbook at the Avalanche in Game 4. Especially the dirty ones.

The Wild flopped like a walleye just pulled from They begged. They moaned. They worked the refs as if it were a Champions League semifinal, a baloney sandwich of pleading arms and empty arguments.

Minnesota had Stars in its eyes, all right. Dallas Stars. Yet the Avs rallied through all that bulljunk and bluster for a 5-2 win Monday night — bringing a 3-1 series lead back to Ball Arena for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Whenever the Wild dug deep on Monday, Colorado dug deeper. Ross Colton. Jack Ahcan. From goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood winning his first playoff start to a “checking” line of Parker Kelly (one goal, three hits), Jack Drury (one assist, two hits) and Joel Kiviranta (two hits), almost every one of coach Jared Bednar’s tweaks paid off.

It takes a village to lift Lord Stanley. The Avs reminded everybody why they’ve got more pitchforks within arm’s reach than any locker room in North America. Colton celebrated his return to the second line by breaking a 1-1 tie on a wrister with 13:04 left in the contest that bested Minny netminder Jesper Wallstedt on his stick side — his first goal of the postseason.

And it was the Avs’ fourth line, Bednar’s favorite sons, that kept the Stanley Cup favorites on top. With 8:28 to go, Kelly took Drury’s pass in the slot, cocked his stick back, and beat Wallstedt with a laser into the top shelf for a 3-2 Colorado lead.

The Avs came in crashing, relentless waves, although it took a while for Minnesota’s Wallstedts to break. With 13:59 left in the second period, the Avs were outshooting Minnesota 17-4. Colorado managed to break through on attempt No. 19 seven seconds later, via their second power play.

Nazem Kadri got a great look off a wrister from the front of the right face-off circle, only for Wallstedt to parry the point-blank look. But the netminder couldn’t corral it, and Kadri gathered his own rebound and whistled it past Wallstedt to get Colorado on the board with 13:52 left in the stanza.

Like the Broncos and Seahawks, the Avs have the kind of defense that travels well, the kind of defense that can win anywhere. The Wild went 19 minutes in the middle period without a shot on goal at one point.

Colorado landed more shots (10 to 4), hits (12 to eight), and takeaways (three to none) than the Wild did over the opening 20 minutes, but couldn’t lay a glove on Minnesota early.

Well, except for one glove in particular. And that belonged to Avs defender Josh Manson, who celebrated his first game in this series by getting a shot in from his backside.

With 12:53 in the first, Minnesota’s Michael McCarron forechecked the Avs D-man into Manitoba, then landed on him with all of his 6-foot-6, 242-pound frame.

As the two clenched, UFC style, Manson appeared to poke at the bigger assailant near the ear with the end of his stick, then threw a left jab with his fist while McCarron lowered an elbow. Manson’s shot landed, but the bigger Wild forward responded as if he’d been popped by Conor McGregor, shooting his head back and collapsing to the ice while clutching his face.

Manson was assessed a four-minute double minor for butt-ending with his stick. He was lucky, in hindsight, that the zebras didn’t toss him. A call for landing the butt-end of the stick is a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

“You played against Josh,” McCarron told ESPN’s P.K. Subban after the opening period. “He’s a dirty player. He’s always been. Surprised he got away with only a four-minute (penalty). I’m happy he’s still in the game.”

Mr. Mc-Karen looked awfully happy to lie on Manson for a few extra seconds, too. Embellish much?

“My intention wasn’t to butt-end him,” Manson said later. “Did I want to punch him in the head? I did want to punch him in the head.”

If you’re curious, Manson averaged 80 regular-season penalty minutes per 82 games over his NHL career. McCarron’s logged 111 penalty minutes per 82.

Once a Temu tough guy, always a Temu tough guy.

Alas, as with Game 3, the hosts didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the extra man. Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber launched a frozen rope from the blue line, and, like Saturday, a Wild forward was camped out comfortably in the Colorado crease to redirect it. Minnesota’s Danila Yurov doinked the dart past Blackwood, and 9:46 into the game, Grand Casino Arena smelled blood in their beers.

But after that, to his credit, Blackwood held fast between the pipes — at least until midway through the third stanza. Colorado wisely kept most of the action on the Wild’s side of the rink, but Blackwood turned away 11 of the first 12 Minnesota shots he faced.

If nothing else, No. 39 vindicated a lineup change from Bednar that threw everybody a curveball. Manson and Ahcan in on defense, Sam Malinsky and Nick Blankenburg out. Kiviranta in, Artturi Lehkonen out. And the losses weren’t small ones, either: Lehkonen put up a team-high plus-9 in plus-minus with six points through his first seven postseason games. Malinsky was second to the feisty Finn in plus-minus (plus-7) with three points from the blue line.

And unlike Pavel Francouz in 2022 and Michael Hutchinson at the bubble in 2020, Bednar turning to Blackwood between the pipes was a switch of choice.

Bednar never moved off of Alexandar Georgiev in 2024, even though Lord Stanley knows Four-giev gave him plenty of reasons to. He stuck with Philipp Grubauer in 2021 during a second-round Vegas series that flipped from fairy tale to nightmare fuel.

Francouz got four starts during that 2022 run to a title because Darcy Kuemper, Bednar’s preferred starter, suffered an eye injury against Nashville and an upper-body one in the opener of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton. Frankie finished off the Avs’ 4-0 sweep of the Oilers, and other than Pavel’s relief stint during a Game 3 loss in Tampa, Kuemper wrapped up the Cup champs’ coronation with wins in Game 4 and Game 6.

It’s a long, hard road to a parade, but the Avs, with a 7-1 postseason mark, can just about make out the exit ramp to the promised land, begging in the distance. The path to a title runs through Chopper Circle again. And Colorado is a win away from bringing a deserved curtain down on

But the lasting image of UFC 300, one that likely will resonate for years to come, was Max Holloway’s last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje for the ceremonial BMF title belt.

— UFC (@ufc)

Holloway-Gaethje was arguably the most anticipated fight on the loaded card, and it not only lived up to expectations, but surpassed them before a sellout crowd of 20,067 that roared over the final seconds and its stunning conclusion.

“That fight sucked the life out of everybody tonight,” UFC President Dana White said. “People ask me what I do. I sell holy (stuff) moments. That was the ultimate holy (stuff) moment. Let����ap just talk about his fight for the rest of the press conference.”

The UFC — which had its third-highest gate at $16.5 million — awarded Holloway a $600,000 bonus for his performance.

Even though Holloway (26-7) was well on his way to a victory by decision — two judges had him ahead 39-37 — the former featherweight champion could have run out the clock.

He instead pointed to the floor in the final seconds and then traded blows with Gaethje (25-5). It was a tremendous combination of punches from both fighters before the one that sent the now ex-BMF champ to the mat with just one second remaining in the five-round fight.

“This is the moment,” Holloway said about going for the KO. “This is what the BMF is known for. If that����ap not a BMF moment, I don’t know what is. If Justin was up, he would’ve given me those 10 seconds.”

“That����ap why Max Holloway is beloved,” White said. “He’s got the fight won and in there with one of the most dangerous fighters in the business. That����ap like movie (stuff). It����ap the fight of the year. If something beats that as fight of the year, holy (stuff).”

Holloway, who also used a spinning kick at the end of the first round to bloody Gaethje’s nose, was in control throughout most of the fight.

“I think it broke his nose. … Any less of a man couldn’t do what Justin Gaethje does,” Holloway said.

In the evening’s final fight, Pereira dropped Hill to the canvas with a straight left hand and then pounded him. Referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight, giving the Brazilian the victory.

Pereira, 36, was a minus-132 favorite, according to .

“I see myself as the champion. I didn’t want to let the belt go to my head,” Pereira said through an interpreter. “I had to step in and win the championship.”

Hill, 32, was the previous title holder, but a torn Achilles tendon forced him to vacate the championship last July. That put the belt in Pereira’s hands, eventually setting up this matchup and his fourth pay-per-view event in 16 months.

As would be expected from a milestone card number, this was a strong lineup that included 12 current or former champions, and 11 who have headlined UFC pay-per-view events.

Zhang Weili (25-3) retained her women’s strawweight championship in the co-main event, beating No. 1 challenger Yan Xiaonan (18-4) by unanimous decision. Each judge scored the fight 49-45.

Zhang nearly choked out Yan to end the first round. Yan, however, found a way to take the fight the five-round distance.

“She bounced back very quickly,” Zhang said through an interpreter.

No. 4 lightweight challenger Arman Tsarukyan (22-3) won by split decision over top-ranked challenger and former champion Charles Oliveira (34-10). Each scorecard was 29-28, two in favor of Tsarukyan.

“I thought all (the) judges were going to give me the decision,” Tsarukyan said.

Three-time NCAA wrestling champion Bo Nickal (6-0) led off the five-fight main card by submitting Cody Brundage (10-6) by rear-naked choke hold at 3:38 of the second round.

“I’m a little bit embarrassed with that performance because I expected to go in there and completely dominate,” Nickal said.

One of the more notable matchups on the undercard was between two-time U.S. Olympic judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Holly Holm.

Harrison (17-1), who made her UFC debut, dominated Holm (15-7). She won the bantamweight bout by submission with a rear-naked choke at 1:47 of the second round.

Retired champion Amanda Nunes posted a video of herself on social media listening to Harrison in the cage and wondering why she didn’t mention her by name.

“I didn’t call Amanda’s name because Amanda’s not the UFC champion,” Harrison said. “I thought she was happily retired. I would love to win the UFC title, and if Amanda wants to come back, I would welcome her with open arms.”

White said he hopes to see Nunes return.

“I think she retired too soon,” White said.

Also on the undercard, second-ranked challenger Jiri Prochazka (30-4) put himself on track to reclaim the light heavyweight championship with a technical knockout at 3:17 of the second round of fifth-ranked Aleksandar Rakic (14-4). Prochazka lost his belt to Pereira in November on a second-round TKO.

“Whoever will win tonight in the main event, I want to take (him on),” Prochazka said.

CONOR MCGREGOR IS BACK

White said Conor McGregor will fight in UFC 303 against Michael Chandler on June 29 in Las Vegas. Also, Islam Makhachev will fight Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 on June 1 in Newark, New Jersey.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

“Unfortunately, I think CU is gonna get us,” Byrd, a and now a State Farm agent in Commerce City, told me on the eve of on Saturday at Folsom Field. “With what Deion (Sanders) is teaching and developing, with his high standards and (given that) the guys are buying in — they only had six penalties (in the opener).

“And they’ve got some guys. Like he said, ‘I’m bringing dawgs.’ I don’t think (the Cornhuskers) have those kind of guys, where they think this way, they think, ‘I’m going to dominate.’ We have a lot of good athletes, but I just don’t know if we have enough guys that have that right mindset.”

You know how you might not love something, or somebody, but at the same time, darn it, you just can’t look away from them? Like a pro wrestling heel, Buffs football has become must-see TV, even for the haters. ‘ So did Magic Johnson. And Dez Bryant. And Pat McAfee. And Russell Wilson. And Bill Simmons. DJ Khaled reposted Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter’s postgame interview. CU-TCU snagged a reported audience of 7.26 million viewers last Saturday, making it the highest-rated “Big Noon” telecast ever for Fox.

A year after 1-11, college football’s biggest dumpster fire, are the 1-0 Buffs … America’s team?

“I think after one game, ‘America’s team’ is a bit of a stretch,” Fox Sports analyst and former Buffs QB Joel Klatt told me via email. “However, Colorado’s certainly the team that America is most interested in right now.

“This team and this story — whether it����ap Deion or now his players, in particular Shedeur and Travis — are certainly the talk of college football. I don’t know if that will continue. They’ll have to continue to win games. It was a perfect storm last week. There was the euphoric nature of the win over TCU, no NFL games and a slightly weaker slate of college football matchups — with that, they certainly grabbed the sports world’s attention. Moving forward, they’re going to have to keep winning to keep this level of relevancy in the sporting landscape.”

Yeah, but the view from a Mile High sure looks sweet, doesn’t it? Coach Prime’s debut was the most-watched CU football game in the Buffs’ star-crossed Pac-12 Era. For context, SportsMediaWatch.com charted five nationally televised games last fall — specifically, tilts that weren’t relegated to the Pac-12 Network — . It’s conceivable, even likely, that more Americans watched the Buffs in Week 1 of 2023 than they did all of last year.

And what kinda blows Byrd away is how CU is on the cusp of doing in 10 months what his beloved Huskers haven’t done in 10 years — dominate the national conversation on college football.

“It definitely feels different (from four years ago),” said Byrd, who plans to tailgate Saturday in Boulder with former teammates and Nebraska faithful prior to, and during, the game. “And I think the part of that is Deion Sanders was not there (before). He’s a game-changer. There’s no one out there like him.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

It takes a village to raise a program out of the cellar. Fox embraced the Ralphie Revolution with a hand on each horn: Klatt featured Coach Prime in the debut episode of his podcast back in June; the network’s promotional push for the CU-TCU included a graphic of Coach Prime riding an AI bison and a mini-tour of a 400-pound replica Ralphie that even cameoed during preseason NFL games last month.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Fox analyst and former Washington Huskies QB Brock Huard told me. “It is the power of television. I will give a lot of credit to the folks at Fox.”

The Buffs took it from there. Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, threw for a school-record 510 passing yards in his debut. Hunter played at least 140 snaps on both sides of the ball, piling up 119 receiving yards on 11 catches, seven of them for first downs, while picking off a TCU pass in the end zone to prevent an easy Frogs score. If the clock hadn’t expired at Amon G. Carter Stadium, Edwards (four touchdowns) might still be running free. A see-saw second half included six lead changes in the game’s final 18 minutes.

Huard hosts a sports-talk radio show in Seattle. CU football became one of topics of the week, even 2,000-some miles north of Fort Worth.

“As it was in Birmingham, as it was Tampa, and it was in Syracuse,” Huard said. “That (game) was just some incredible theater.”

And Broadway shows don’t come cheap.

The lowest price for Buffs-Huskers tickets on the secondary market was $305 before fees at midweek. That was three times the get-in rate to watch Patrick Mahomes and the defending-Super-Bowl-champion Chiefs ($124 before fees) lose at home to the Detroit Lions.

“It’s kind of like Conor McGregor, where he can lose, but people tune in just to watch him,” former Buffs wideout and Olympian Jeremy Bloom said. “They know something entertaining is going to happen, win or lose. That’s the story of Deion at CU.”

Sanders interviewed for the TCU job that eventually went to Sonny Dykes. South Florida reportedly had an offer for Coach Prime on the table, while Auburn fans such as Charles Barkley were pining to see Coach Prime lead their beloved Tigers. How many athletic directors were kicking themselves after the Buffs shocked the world and shot into the top 25?

“I don’t know if they’re kicking themselves, but they’re all taking notice,” Bloom continued. “(When it’s) more expensive to watch CU then watch the Chiefs play their opening game, I think everyone’s taking notice.”

Season tickets flew off the shelves. Home tilts with CSU (Sept. 16) and USC (Sept. 23) are completely sold out, and “limited” tickets at Folsom remain for Oregon State on Nov. 4 and Arizona on Nov. 11.

“They’re not America’s team, but they are America’s story,” Huard said with a chuckle. “They are the story that everybody’s got to write. … They’re a movie, and the players write the script. And Deion’s movie is the biggest movie in the country. The script they wrote last week was incredible.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

The next scene is what worries Byrd right now. The former Husker saw Sanders up close for the first time his redshirt freshman year, back in ’88, when Prime was a senior at Florida State. Heard him before he saw him, of course.

“He was bragging about how ‘They couldn’t complete that pass on Florida State,'” Byrd recalled. “I was never a big fan of his. If you’re going to talk like that, you better back it up. And he backed it up.”

Byrd was one of the top defensive backs in Arizona coming out of high school. When he hears Coach Prime talk now, he hears the same things, the same core principles, that made him join the Cornhuskers four decades ago.

“(Sanders) is going to keep getting these type of kids and top-flight talent, because he’s not just talking about football,” Byrd said. “He’s talking about sitting in the front of the class, saying ‘Yes, sir, yes ma’am.’ Not using profanity. Not wearing hoodies. That’s what my mom wanted to hear. That’s why I went to Nebraska. That’s why he’s going to have success.

“If I were in high school right now, (CU) would be my top school that I would pick, based on what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen and what he expects from those kids.”

For Byrd and his old Husker running buddies, the truly scary part about the Buffs right now isn’t the noise, the yards, the fun or the smoke. It’s not how they came. It’s what’s coming next.

But before you hop onto the hockey high horse and wag a tender, reproachful, oh-how-could-you finger at Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon for throwing down with Minnesota’s Matt Dumba earlier this week, consider:

• Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, that noted bastion of NHL peace and love, has been a part of at least eight in-game fights since 2007.

• Vancouver’s J.T. Miller? At least 10 scraps since 2012.

• Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos, another alleged NHL dove, is on record for taking part in at least five donnybrooks.

• Washington’s Alex Ovechkin? Four scuffles.

Now. Was dropping the gloves the wisest course for big No. 29? Oh, heck, no. I mean, did you watch the Oscars?

But if your argument against Nate going to bat for his Avs teammates is, by golly, NHL stars just don’t do that …

Quick word, champ.

They do.

Some of ‘em, quite a bit.

According to the database of dark arts kept by the good folks at of the top 20 scorers in the NHL as of Wednesday afternoon, hockey’s most indispensable offensive weapons have been involved in 5.4 career fights, on average, over the last 14 seasons. That����ap almost half a dirty dozen!

Individually, it����ap a bit of a mixed bag, we’ll grant you. Of that aforementioned top 20, 11 have thrown down at least twice, the site says. Seven of ‘em, at least five times. And nine of ‘em, including Avs bulwarks Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar, have yet to register a scrum at all.

On the flip side, , the site contends, going all the way back to his days with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. (Never, ever mess with a Moosehead, kids.)

And yes, as Smith also taught us this past Sunday night, there’s a time and a place. This might be neither the time nor the place to point out that the Avs are somehow 13-2-1 this campaign in the 16 games in which MacKinnon hasn’t played. Or, even more remarkably, the fact that they’re 19-3-2 without No. 29 over the last two regular seasons.

And yes, the Presidents’ Trophy is to NHL general managers what the Jack Adams Award is to the cats on the bench. Organizations — and eras — are defined by Stanley Cups.

The real fun, and the true measuring stick, starts in May. And hoisting Lord Stanley without a lot of heavy lifting from MacKinnon along the way doesn’t seem very likely.

You don’t think he knows this? You don’t think Super Joe Sakic knows this? Or Jared Bednar, who’ll take the fall, and the heat, if Colorado suffers another premature playoff exit?

Look, nobody condones giving MacKinnon the green light to release his inner Conor McGregor whenever the mood or temptation strikes. But it����ap worth noting that the Avs at present are also sans one of their best on-ice enforcers, Gabe Landeskog, indefinitely. If there’s a recurring theme emanating from Bednar’s bunch over the last four months, it����ap this: No backing down, no matter what. Rightly or wrongly, MacKinnon decided to pick up the baton.

No. 29 has to grasp his role, absolutely. His importance, no question. For the next four weeks, the Avs’ worst enemy isn’t Calgary. Or Vegas. Or Joe Pavelski. Or the ghosts of postseasons past. It����ap themselves.

But ask yourself this question, too. Who would you rather have as your teammate, given a choice: MacKinnon, a star who’s shown he’ll rumble for a cause? Or Teddy Bridgewater, whose most-remembered feat as a Denver Bronco will be the time he made his infamous “business decision?”

Some dudes, in the heat of the moment, are gonna dude. Just ask the Fresh Prince. From a safe distance, of course.

The fight was stopped after the first-round bell when McGregor (22-6) was unable to continue. The biggest star in mixed martial arts never got up after falling to the canvas following a final-minute blow by Poirier (28-6), who will get the UFC’s next lightweight title shot.

Poirier said he thought McGregor’s leg broke when he checked one of McGregor’s kicks earlier in the fight.

“I felt something, for sure,” Poirier said. “He fractured it on one of the kicks at the beginning of the fight, and then he broke it.”

Poirier was largely in control of the opening round, parrying McGregor’s kicks and landing several strikes before getting control over McGregor on the ground. After a long stretch of punches and elbows on the prone McGregor, Poirier knocked him down one last time — and McGregor’s ankle bent gruesomely as he fell.

McGregor was furious about the circumstances of his loss before he was carried from the cage.

“This is not over!” he shouted.

Poirier stopped McGregor in the second round when they met in Abu Dhabi last January, avenging his first-round knockout loss to McGregor in 2014. Poirier’s clear superiority in the fighters’ second bout made a third showdown seem questionable just six months later, but McGregor demanded the chance to fix his mistakes and Poirier accepted the massive paycheck that comes from sharing a cage with McGregor.

Instead of taking an easier fight or another boxing match, McGregor wanted another shot at Poirier after getting stopped by strikes for the first time in his MMA career. He claimed he had been distracted by his plans to box Manny Pacquiao this year, and he vowed to devote his full attention to MMA in training camp.

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The biggest star in combat sports preened, strutted and misbehaved at T-Mobile Arena, delighting his fans in a raucous crowd anticipating the finale to one of the biggest fight trilogies in recent history on Saturday night.

McGregor threw a bottle of Dustin Poirier’s hot sauce into the stands early on and then prowled the stage, security guards separating him from his opponent. He threw a kick at Poirier during their event-ending faceoff — when he was too far away to connect, of course.

In between, the loquacious Irishman insulted Poirier’s wife, repeatedly vowed to kill Poirier in the cage, questioned Poirier’s love for his native Louisiana and called Poirier a common epithet that����ap much less loaded on McGregor’s side of the pond.

Poirier and the assembled fans got another recital of McGregor’s classic verbal combination of dexterity and brutality, the secret to burrowing inside the heads of several opponents during his rocket ride into the sports stratosphere in the previous decade.

“On Saturday night, you’re going to get walked around that octagon like a dog and then put to sleep,” McGregor said to Poirier.

“He’s not in the same stratosphere as me,” McGregor insisted later. “The man looks disgraceful up here. He looks frail at this weight now. The weight cut is getting to him.”

“He’s going out on a stretcher in this fight,” McGregor said finally.

And while McGregor’s fans drank it up faster than a double shot of their hero’s Proper Twelve whiskey, Poirier appeared to weather the verbal blows perfectly well.

“You used to be a lot better than that, man,” Poirier said during a rare break in the barrage. “The trash talk was a lot better than that.”

After all, McGregor’s carefully crafted persona doesn’t hit quite so hard when McGregor has had his hand raised in victory just once since the Obama administration: For all his fame, fortune and celebrity, he’s 1-2 in the cage and 0-1 in the boxing ring since November 2016.

Poirier laughed at the difference from the promotion for their second fight last January, when McGregor was disarmingly friendly and charming throughout. Even with a resumption of hostilities, Poirier insisted he won’t allow McGregor into his head as he did in 2014, when McGregor knocked him out in their first meeting.

“I see a man here that I’ve defeated, and I know I can defeat again,” Poirier said.

McGregor has reached a level of power in the fight game where he’s no longer defined by mere wins and losses. His appearances in a cage or a ring are international events, and he has built a celebrity persona that towers above his peers even as its foundation of sports success eroded over the past half-decade.

But instead of settling into what would likely be several comfortable years fighting non-title UFC spectacles and taking more cash-grab boxing matches, McGregor chose to return to his last defeat. Instead of moving on, he wants to go back, to get it right — and to set a new path in front of the UFC’s first full-capacity crowd in its hometown since the start of the pandemic.

T-Mobile Arena hadn’t been built when the duo first met in 2014 and McGregor stopped Poirier in 106 seconds. Their rematch six months ago was in Abu Dhabi inside the UFC’s coronavirus bubble, and Poirier stopped McGregor in the second round of an equally emphatic victory.

“He’s Buster Douglas,” McGregor said. “It was a fluke win, and I’m going to correct it on Saturday night.”

McGregor has hinted at what he suspects to be the causes of his one-sided loss in January to Poirier, who leg-kicked McGregor into serious pain before finishing him with precise punches.

McGregor says he wasn’t completely focused on MMA last year, and he had already arranged his post-fight boxing training camp to prepare for a lucrative fight with Manny Pacquiao. McGregor also claims he was overly confident and too nice to Poirier, thinking back to his win seven years earlier and assuming he could do the same things again.

The niceness was mostly eliminated after their second bout, which included an extended brouhaha over a charity donation promised by McGregor to Poirier. McGregor already returned to his usual anarchic shenanigans on social media, calling Poirier an “inbred hillbilly” and further insulting Poirier’s wife.

Away from the public, McGregor says he went back to work. He moved his training camp to Southern California, working out in strict secrecy with his closest trainers and coaches. He changed his workout and diet regimens, moving to a six-meals-a-day consumption schedule in a bid to improve both his conditioning and his power.

Although he performed like a Vegas lounge singer Thursday, McGregor insists we’ll see all the hits on Saturday night.

“My mindset is I’m back on the building sites with a hard hat and two hammers in my hands,” said McGregor, a former laborer and apprentice plumber before his MMA career. “That����ap my mindset. I’m not relishing in my past accomplishments. I’m back.”

UFC President Dana White announced his plan Wednesday for the promotion’s first sellout show in its hometown since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I am so happy to finally be able to say Vegas is back,” White said.

The world’s biggest mixed martial arts organization hasn’t fought in front of more than a few dozen fans in Las Vegas since the start of the pandemic. For the past 11 months, the UFC has held its near-weekly shows in its empty gym on its corporate campus in Vegas or at Abu Dhabi’s Fight Island, where limited crowds were allowed in January.

Earlier this week, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said the state aims to lift the majority of its COVID-19 restrictions in the next few weeks with a goal of fully reopening by June 1.

White said the UFC wouldn’t fight again in front of fans until the promotion could have full-capacity crowds in the stands, and that move is happening soon. The UFC’s next two pay-per-view shows will be held in front of full arenas in Florida and Texas.

UFC 261 in Jacksonville on April 24 will be the promotion’s first show before a full crowd since March 2020. The card is headlined by three title fights, including welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s rematch with Jorge Masvidal.

The promotion likely will continue to hold its smaller weekly shows at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker fights Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of the Apex’s next show on Saturday night.

UFC 264 will be headlined by the completion of the trilogy for Poirier and McGregor, the most popular fighter in MMA. McGregor won their first meeting in 2014, but Poirier stopped McGregor in the second round at UFC 257 in January.

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Live updates, tweets, photos, analysis and more from UFC 257 on Jan. 23, 2020. Conor McGregor will face Dustin Poirier in the main event.

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They might cheer the loudest for Conor McGregor.

The first of three straight fight nights at Etihad Arena on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island kicked off last Saturday when Max Holloway (22-6) defeated Calvin Kattar (22-5) in a 145-pound bout in the main event of the first combat sports card aired on ABC since 2000. UFC welterweights Michael Chiesa and Neil Magny fight in the main event of Wednesday’s ESPN card.

That����ap just an appetizer for UFC 257 on Jan. 24 when McGregor returns from a year-long layoff for a rematch against Dustin Poirier in the promotion’s first pay-per-view of the year.

By then, McGregor might know if another rematch is potentially on the table, this one against the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov, who called it quits in October with a 29-0 record after he retained his lightweight championship. McGregor’s last loss was against Nurmagomedov in October 2018 in a bout known more a post-fight melee that spilled outside the octagon. Saddened by the recent death of his father and mentor, Nurmagomedov surprisingly retired in his prime after he beat Poirier in Abu Dhabi.

UFC President Dana White wants one of his top box office draws to fight again, perhaps get to 30-0 and take it from there. The two are scheduled to meet at some point in Abu Dhabi.

“It����ap yes or no,” White said by phone from Abu Dhabi. “I felt like going into that last fight, he obviously was very emotional, he was banged up, he was hurt. He was under a tremendous amount of pressure. Now he’s had plenty of time off. He’s healed up. He knows whether he wants to fight again or not. I think it will be a very quick conversation. If he says no, it����ap no. I won’t even say another word.”

White’s gut feeling? “I feel like he’s got one more in him and he’ll say yes.”

White could only wish his relationship was that simple with McGregor.

McGregor (22-4) fights for the first time since his knockout win against Donald Cerrone last January and for only the third time since 2016. The 32-year-old McGregor, who became the biggest star in MMA with his heavy fists and self-promotional acumen, stayed away from the cage in large part because of his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, his blossoming liquor venture, retirement claims and multiple arrests.

McGregor and White sparred in public last year when the former featherweight and lightweight champion released a series of Instagram direct messages in a “he said-he said” exchange over potential fight opponents.

“I honestly, at that point in time, didn’t think we were ever going to get over that,” White said. “I was really unhappy about it. I was wrong. He and I ended up talking and we got it worked out.”

They’ve buried the hatchet — as businessmen are inclined to do with multi-millions of dollars at stake — and White said McGregor seems as focused and confident about fighting as he’s been in years.

“I don’t know if I’d say he wasted (prime years) because if you look at what he’s accomplished in the short amount of time that he was here, and, listen, the kid made, and still makes a ton of money a year,” he said. “He leveraged his celebrity and what he’s done here in the UFC to make money outside the UFC, which is tough to do, for anybody. He didn’t just make some money. He made a life-changing substantial amount of money.”

McGregor has long helped UFC set box office records — his 40-second KO of Cerrone earned about 1.4 million buys. But he was absent as the promotion pushed on in 2020 in the face of a pandemic and ran events nearly every weekend. UFC — really, White — was criticized for pushing forward in the wake of a pandemic, and he fired back with a nearly five-minute long propaganda video in which specific outlets and writers were condemned for speaking out against the promotion. UFC used to go door-to-door with newspapers and other media outlets seeking coverage of its events and fighters. White would beg ESPN for highlights on its programming and now UFC is tied to the sports network in a $1.5 billion deal.

He won. But it hasn’t been enough for the man who once dodged the money collectors for notorious crime boss Whitey Bulger.

“Believe me, that was the first round,” White said. “I’ve got another one coming.”

White said a UFC-produced documentary on how it navigated the early days of the pandemic is in the works and it takes aim on the media he claims “tried to get us shut down.”

“I know all you media guys want to think you’re all good guys, but you’re not all good guys,” White said.

It����ap the media that also spreads the word of UFC headlines — including an anti-doping policy change in which it will no longer punish fighters for using marijuana in most cases; a $1 million contribution this week toward brain trauma research; the continued fight against PPV piracy; and potential involvement with Johns Hopkins University about its psychedelics studies as a means to improve fighters’ brain health.

White had been adamant about not wanting to run big fights without a packed house, but when the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism said it was time to let them in, he relented.

UFC decided not to pipe in artificial crowd noise, use cardboard cutouts or any other type of gimmicks other sports leagues used to enhance the atmosphere during its broadcasts. The fight night noise had been simply raw fist-on-face, though starting Saturday, about 2,000 fans are expected to attend each event on Abu Dhabi.

“I’ll do whatever these guys want,” White said. “If they want to put 2,000 or two people in here, I don’t care. But if we’re going into a venue back in the states or anywhere else, I’m not going to put anybody in there unless I can sell it out.”