Conor McGregor says 'USADA is going in the bin' after anti-doping agency disputes his return claims

Conor McGregor’s timeline to return to the UFC has been thrown into disarray over some disputes between himself and USADA.

The Irishman seemed convinced a couple of passed drug tests would be all he needed to return to the Octagon - but the anti-doping agency has other ideas.

And the MMA star is livid.

McGregor removed himself from the USADA testing pool after suffering a broken leg in his July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier.

He was under the belief that he’d need to give a pair of clean drug tests and he’d be fine to return for his proposed fight against Michael Chandler.

He told The MMA Hour: “I’m not rushing nothing.

“There’s hurdles and whatnot. But we’re in contact. We’re in constant communication, and there’s an interview scheduled and a meeting (that will) happen, and then it will be official.

“But the six months thing, what they had said was two clean tests, and off I go. So I assume it won’t be too long.”

USADA, however, requires athletes to be in the testing pool for six months before they are allowed to compete to prohibit anyone from bending the rules until they fight - although this can be waived for ‘exceptional circumstances’.

And well, USADA seemingly doesn’t consider Conor’s situation ‘exceptional’ as they released a statement refuting his claims.

The statement read: “While we meet with all athletes who enter or re-enter the testing pool, we do not currently have a meeting set with Conor and, as of (Thursday), we have not received notice of his coming out of retirement to compete.

“The UFC rules are clear that, in addition to two negative tests, an athlete must make themself available for testing six months before returning to competition.”

The statement claimed they had made clear their position that McGregor needed to be in the testing pool for six months.

With Conor not yet in the pool, this means a proposed matchup with Chandler wouldn’t go ahead until at least September, well after The Ultimate Fighter is wrapped up.

And McGregor was not happy with the revelation, claiming the agency was making it look like he was ‘lying’ in a since-deleted tweet.

He wrote: “USADA is going in the bin.”

He added, in a deleted tweet: “Over 70 clean tests. Never violated once. I will not be scapegoated by this garbage organisation. You are not the end-all and be-all in this equation USADA.”

With McGregor’s return going hand-in-hand with the season of The Ultimate Fighter being such a prized plan for UFC, it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with the situation.