USADA's partnership with UFC to end Dec. 31
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the company's partnership with the UFC will end upon the conclusion of its current contract on Dec. 31.
Tygart said in the statement the UFC informed USADA on Monday it would not renew the contract, which has been in place since 2015 and was ground-breaking at the time. UFC executives Hunter Campbell and Jeff Novitzky weren't immediately available for comment.
Tygart's statement appeared to indicate a dispute between the sides about former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor. McGregor has not fought since breaking his tibia in a July 10, 2021, fight with Dustin Poirier in Las Vegas.
McGregor coached on the UFC's reality show, "The Ultimate Fighter," which aired this year, with the plan to fight Michael Chandler. But he did not reenter the USADA drug-testing program until Sunday, according to Tygart's statement. If an athlete leaves the USADA testing program, as McGregor did, he's required to produce two clean test results and wait six months.
The UFC has not commented on when McGregor specifically will return to fight. Tygart, though, said he's not certain if McGregor will be required to be in the pool for six months since its deal is ending on Dec. 31 and it will lose its authority. Being tested for six months means McGregor will have to be in the USADA pool and then its successor until April 8.
“We can confirm that Conor McGregor has reentered the USADA testing pool as of Sunday, October 8, 2023," Tygart said in his statement. "We have been clear and firm with the UFC that there should be no exception given by the UFC for McGregor to fight until he has returned two negative tests and been in the pool for at least six months. The rules also allow USADA to keep someone in the testing pool longer before competing based on their declarations upon entry in the pool and testing results.
"Unfortunately, we do not currently know whether the UFC will ultimately honor the six-month or longer requirement because, as of January 1, 2024, USADA will no longer be involved with the UFC Anti-Doping Program. Despite a positive and productive meeting about a contract renewal in May 2023, the UFC did an about-face and informed USADA on Monday, October 9, that it was going in a different direction."
Tygart then referred to comments made by Joe Rogan, a UFC television analyst for its domestic pay-per-view shows, from his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," in which Rogan said he didn't like the six-month wait.
"The relationship between USADA and UFC became untenable given the statements made by UFC leaders and others questioning USADA’s principled stance that McGregor not be allowed to fight without being in the testing pool for at least six months," Tygart's statement said. "One UFC commentator echoed this, recently declaring that USADA should not oversee the UFC program since we held firm to the six-month rule involving McGregor, and since we do not allow fighters without an approved medical basis to use performance-enhancing drugs like experimental, unapproved peptides or testosterone for healing or injuries simply to get back in the Octagon."
Yahoo Sports contacted McGregor's manager, Audie Attar of Paradigm Sports, about Tygart's comments on McGregor. Attar has yet to respond.
There has been speculation about the UFC having interest in partnering with Drug Free Sport International, which handles anti-doping testing for the NFL and Major League Baseball, among others, but the UFC has not acknowledged that publicly.
