No ‘Dana White Privilege’ as Conor McGregor Remains Most Tested Fighter on Road to UFC 303

Last year, as Conor McGregor was out on the seas, scenes of officials in speedboats preparing to board his $3.6 million yacht were posted by ‘Mac’. While the Irishman has certainly had his run-ins with the law, the officers were not a part of any law enforcement agency. They were from an agency every martial artist fears even more: the US Anti-Doping Agency, better known by its acronym, USADA.

McGregor, who was scheduled to return to the octagon in December last year, had run afoul of USADA rules that mandate every fighter to enter the agency’s testing pool. This was one of the rumored reasons why ‘Mac’ didn’t return last year as originally planned. And it tuns out even with the stringent USADA  conditions out of the picture with the testing being taken in-house by the UFC, McGregor is still in the crosshairs of of anti-doping officials ahead of his June 29 UFC 303 welterweight clash against Michael Chandler.

Conor McGregor most tested UFC fighter of 2024 (so far)

The UFC’s anti-doping program has a webpage where it has indexed the number of times fighter has been tested in a year. A search on it reveals the surprising result that Conor McGregor has been tested a whopping six times in the UFC, twice more than any other active fighter on the Las Vegas-based promotion’s roster.

‘Mac’s old rival and UFC legend Jose Aldo was second with four drug tests. The most any other fighter not named McGregor or Aldo, and in the UFC testing pool has been tested is just three times. Former middleweight champion Sean Strickland, UFC bantamweight Cody Gibson, and women’s bantamweight Mayra Bueno Silva are among the fighters who have had to give their samples to the anti-doping body three times in 2024 so far.

And the UFC has good reason for testing McGregor. The Irishman is coming off a serious leg injury, which has kept him out of action since June 2021. The Irishman has not fought since his UFC 264 trilogy against Dustin Poirier, where he snapped his leg clean into two discreet part held together by tissue and muscle.

He left the testing pool shortly after. In addition, given the serious nature of his injury, it is quite common for doctors to prescribe some USADA-banned substances. Many enzymes and compounds, and indeed outright PEDs are prescribes as they aid recovery, but will return a positive drug test.

Which is why fans were not surprised to see McGregor looking buffer than usual on last year’s season on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, where he appeared opposite upcoming opponent, Michael Chandler as head coach. And then there were also whispers of substance abuse. All of these were postulated as reasons for USADA making the decision that led to it being shown the door by the UFC.

USADA refused to let the UFC exempt McGregor

From 2015 till December 31 last year, the UFC had contracted USADA to prevent performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) from being used by fighters. While this partnership worked well for until last year, cracks started to appear as many fighters and analysts such as Joe Rogan and ‘Big’ John McCarthy being opposed to the stringent conditions and drug classifications of USADA.

There was a common criticism that USADA did not take into account the special considerations that MMA fighters faced such as certain enzymes that boost recovery and healing are not allowed even for injured fighters. And things came to a head last year after Dana White indicated that the UFC would give McGregor an exemption as an organization is allowed to according to USADA rules.

The agency came out with a statement saying it wouldn’t allow the UFC to go forth with an exemption to the Irishman, which incensed the UFC boss no end. It was announced soon after that the UFC would split with the independent agency at the end of 2024. And while it was expected that the drug-testing noose around Conor McGregor’sneck would be loosened, that has not been the case. Quite the contrary, McGregor has been tested six times.