USADA well-known coming near split from UFC amid McGregor checking out saga The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency introduced Wednesday that UFC fighter Conor McGregor has officially lowered back to the drug-trying out pool, the subsequent step in advance of a capability go back combat.
But CEO Travis Tygart’s statement in an accompanying news launch came with a caveat: USADA’s partnership with the UFC might be over starting Jan. 1, 2024.
Tygart wrote that the UFC and USADA had an “advantageous and efficient assembly” approximately a settlement renewal in May.
But “the UFC did an approximately-face” and told USADA on Monday that the merchandising might be moving into a unique course, Tygart wrote. The UFC hired USADA to run its anti-doping application in 2015.
According to the USADA release, the relationship between the 2 events became rendered “untenable” because of the scenario with McGregor, the UFC’s pinnacle star.
“Fighters’ lengthy-time period health and protection — further to an honest and stage gambling field — are extra crucial to USADA than quick-term income at the cost of clean athletes,” Tygart wrote inside the statement.
Dana White said on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday that the UFC would nevertheless hire an independent organization to run its anti-doping application. He is known as USADA’s declaration Wednesday a “scumbag flow.”
McGregor eliminated himself from the USADA drug-testing pool after struggling with a fractured leg in combat against Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
According to the UFC’s anti-doping coverage, maintained by USADA, a fighter who re-enters the drug-checking-out pool ought to spend at least six months in it and bypass two drug tests earlier than competing once more. There changed into a written exception to that rule.
The UFC ought to waive the six-month rule for a fighter if it has been deemed unfair to said fighter. But that fighter could nonetheless need to bypass two drug exams.
USADA said in November 2022 that within the case of McGregor, it felt such an exemption might no longer be applicable. In other phrases, USADA wanted McGregor to spend at least six months in the drug-trying out pool earlier than competing once more.
USADA doubled down on that during March, writing in a statement that “our function, which we’ve got made clean, is that Conor ought to be inside the checking out pool for the full six-month duration.”
Tygart wrote that “statements made through UFC leaders and others wondering USADA’s principled stance” brought about the wreck between the two businesses.
That changed into a clear connection with an interview UFC president Dana White did in July with TSN, in which he stated there was a risk McGregor may want to combat before the cease of the year, insinuating he failed to need to be within the drug-testing pool for 6 months.
“We’ll see how that plays out,” White said in the interview. “[USADA] is saying that now, however, who knows? I don’t speak about s— till s— happens. To sit down here and suppose hypothetically how one million various things ought to occur, no concept.
The Conor issue, who the hell is aware of how that’s going to play out? Who cares what USADA says?”
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan said last month on his podcast that the UFC must take its drug-trying out in residence because he believes that some of USADA’s policies,
along with the six-month rule and that fighters are prohibited from taking banned substances for recovery purposes, can be doing more damage than proper.
Tygart made reference to Rogan’s remarks in his declaration Wednesday, writing “We do now not allow fighters without an authorized clinical basis to use performance-improving pills like experimental, unapproved peptides or testosterone for recovery or accidents really to get lower back inside the Octagon.”
The UFC and McGregor’s team no longer without delay reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Tygart wrote that USADA is unsure if the UFC will honor the six-month requirement for McGregor, considering that starting next year the partnership between the two corporations will end. McGregor could come to be combating before the six months are up in that example.
“We are disillusioned for UFC athletes, who are unbiased contractors who rely on our independent, gold-fashionable international application to protect their rights to a clean, secure, and fair Octagon,” he wrote.
“The UFC’s move imperils the significant development made inside the game below USADA’s management.”