Conor McGregor has accepted a fight with Dustin Poirier on January 23 and confirmed he is hoping to face Manny Pacquiao afterwards.

The 32-year-old Irishman retired from the UFC in June, the third time he has done so in the past four years.

But now it appears he is returning to the MMA company, one year on from his 40-second destruction of Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.

And the former two-weight world champion is looking for the clash to take place at the 105,000 capacity AT&T Stadium in Texas before he turns his attention to legendary boxer Pacquiao.

"I accept, Jan 23rd is on!," he told his Twitter followers.

"My goal is to see this fight take place in Cowboy stadium. Proper Style! Jerry Jones is a friend and the stadium can hold our crowd. I will be ready for Texas and Texas will be ready for my fans!

"Then Manny. #McGregorSportsandEntertainment."

It was initially thought McGregor-Poirier was going to be an exhibition bout in Dublin at the end of the year.

But based on what UFC boss Dana White said earlier this week, it appears the clash is now a fully-fledged MMA fight.

"We offered him a fight, we got him his own date," he said.

"We didn’t have a date this year. We have everything laid out for this year, with world champions fighting for titles.

"He wants to fight Dustin Poirier apparently, so we went to ESPN and got him his own date. He’s been offered Dustin Poirier on Jan 23. It’s a yes or no answer."

McGregor has already faced Poirier back in 2014 when he stopped the American in the first round.

Whether he does the same next year or not, his ambition is then to face Filipino eight-weight world champion Pacquiao.

Pacquiao has not fought since he defended his welterweight world title against Keith Thurman in July 2019.