On October 5, 2023, Conor McGregor announced that he was back in the USADA pool and he had submitted his papers to USADA. On Wednesday, USADA confirmed that as of October 8, 2023, McGregor has re-entered the testing pool. This news was accompanied by a shocking announcement about the partnership between UFC & USADA coming to an end. USADA threw a shade at UFC announcer, Joe Rogan for this fallout.
NO MORE USADA & UFC 🤯🤯🤯
USADA also CONFIRMS that Conor McGregor is in the testing pool 👀 pic.twitter.com/7VIM2zR9S2
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) October 11, 2023
In their statement, USADA claims that they are unsure if the UFC will honor their six-month rule in the case of McGregor. “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,” claims USADA.
They went on to blame Joe Rogan for his remarks declaring that USADA should not oversee the UFC program. Rogan said this was due to the firm six-month rule involving ‘The Notorious One‘. “We do not allow fighters without an approved medical basis to use performance-enhancing drugs for healing or injuries simply to get back in the octagon,” said USADA as a response to Joe Rogan.
No more Usada?
Fighters until December fighters in January pic.twitter.com/euyI3pmDCw— GILBERT BURNS DURINHO (@GilbertDurinho) October 11, 2023
The USADA-UFC partnership will end on January 1, 2024. USADA said that they would continue to provide “unparalleled service” to UFC athletes for the remainder of their current contract.
Joe Rogan thinks that USADA was a mistake
Joe Rogan has been outspoken about USADA for a long time. He has always been a strong critic of the testing agency. In a recent episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, he said that UFC should turn to in-house testing.
Joe Rogan believes that USADA’s testing measures are way too extreme and they are doing more harm than good for the fighters. Rogan claims that waking up guys at 6:30 to test them on the day of weigh-ins is “f***ing insane,” and should be stopped.
Joe Rogan shares his thoughts on Conor McGregor’s situation with USADA 🥤
Full story: https://t.co/JzSiUch4DP pic.twitter.com/HQDDo5kpdY
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) December 6, 2022
Rogan recently supported Conor McGregor’s antics to avoid the testing pool. During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with Paul Felder, Joe Rogan claimed that he was a big fan of Conor’s approach to avoiding the USADA testing pool. During another episode with Jorge Masvidal, both Rogan & ‘Gamebred’ claimed that USADA is unfair to certain fighters & it is not an even playing field.
What do you think about the UFC’s decision to cut ties with USADA? Will this decision be good for the athletes or will it put the careers of clean athletes in jeopardy? Let us know in the comments below.