UFC vigorously defends Conor McGregor amid split with USADA, details new anti-doping program
LAS VEGAS — In a tense, often contentious news conference that announced the creation of an anti-doping program it called best in class, two UFC officials vigorously defended former champion Conor McGregor, blasted USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart and said they'd develop technology that will make the sample collection process more thorough and simpler for fighters.
Hunter Campbell, the UFC's chief business officer and Jeff Novitzky, its senior vice president of athlete health and performance met with a small group of reporters here on its campus Thursday to rebut a statement released Wednesday by Tygart, who heads the company that led the UFC's anti-doping program since 2015.
In his statement released via email Wednesday, Tygart announced that the UFC had ended its partnership with USADA. He lamented its decision and had pointed words for the UFC and McGregor, who has been injured and hasn't fought in 27 months.
In his statement, Tygart wrote:
"We are disappointed for UFC athletes, who are independent contractors who rely on our independent, gold-standard global program to protect their rights to a clean, safe, and fair Octagon. The UFC’s move imperils the immense progress made within the sport under USADA’s leadership. 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."
Campbell and Novitzky were irritated by Tygart's statement. Campbell had called Tygart on Monday, he said, to tell him UFC wouldn't renew its deal with USADA and was building its own deal.
On Thursday, Campbell and Novitzky scowled for much of the time and both men used profanities in addressing Tygart's statement, which either has rarely or ever done in a public setting before.
The UFC said its anti-doping program will be headed by George Piro, the former agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office. Piro was also the lead interrogator of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after he was captured on Dec. 13, 2003.
"When you talk about George Piro, you're talking about an individual with the highest level of integrity and credibility you can possibly imagine," Novitzky said. "And while I had a noticeable law enforcement career, my résumé pales in comparison to that of George Piro. As I talk about George, he's quite literally an American hero."
Piro will lead a program that will take effect on Jan. 1, after the UFC's current contract with USADA expires on Dec. 31. Drug Free Sport International, which is used by the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, WNBA, NCAA and other organizations, will handle collections of the doping samples.
And Dr. Daniel Eichner, who runs the Sports Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) in Salt Lake City will serve as the new science director. SMRTL is one of two laboratories in the U.S. accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Novitzky called the UFC's program with USADA overwhelmingly successful in its eight-year run.
"I think we have transformed the sport of MMA, not just the UFC, in an incredibly positive direction," said Novitzky, who told Yahoo Sports following the event that he was working on a deal with the UFC to keep him in his position for another four or five years. "We're approaching 30,000 individual tests in our program with a positivity rate of less than 1 percent. We've seen the frequency of those positive cases drop dramatically throughout the course of the program."
But there were plenty of harsh words for USADA, particularly about its comments on McGregor. The UFC officials also said USADA failed to make technological advances and resisted procedural changes that Campbell and Novitzky said they would later enthusiastically support.
In his Wednesday statement, Tygart announced that McGregor had reentered the anti-doping pool. Under the rules in place — which Campbell and Novitzky stressed will remain in place — athletes who return to competition after pulling out of the pool must be in it for six months and produce two negative test results.
It was exceedingly rare for USADA to single out an athlete in its history in the program, but Tygart's statement seemed to imply, if not directly allege, McGregor had taken unapproved substances.
"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," Tygart wrote. "Fighters’ long-term health and safety — in addition to a fair and level playing field — are more important to USADA than short-term profits at the expense of clean athletes."
That riled up Campbell and Novitzky. The UFC sent Tygart a legal letter dated Oct. 11 in which it wrote:
"Your unprecedented Statement regarding Conor McGregor ... contains several false and highly misleading representations plainly designed to convey that the UFC chose not to renew its agreement with USADA because it objected to USADA's principled stance that McGregor not be allowed to fight without being in the testing pool for at least six months."
The letter went on to accuse USADA of defamation: " ... it is apparent that you and USADA maliciously propagated false information to mislead the public ... " It threatened legal action and asked for a retraction and an apology by Thursday at 5 p.m., which is now past.
Campbell said multiple times that USADA was repeatedly told that when McGregor returned to the testing pool, it would support keeping him in it for the full six months. And Campbell said that McGregor will stay in the pool until six months after his return even with the new anti-doping plan in place. That should make McGregor eligible to fight again on April 8, 2024.
Campbell said Tygart's statement was a "complete misrepresentation of what had occurred over the last several months."
Tygart declined to comment when reached by Yahoo Sports. He issued a statement through his public relations office that said, "We stand by our statement and our credibility."
The UFC was frustrated that USADA didn't develop an app for fighters to declare their whereabouts, a vital piece of an anti-doping program. Campbell said many of the UFC fighters were concerned about sticking needles into their body and had urged USADA to come up with technology to make that process easier. He said the new plan will accomplish both of those things.
Campbell declined to say the total cost of the new anti-doping program, but said he was working with the best programmers in the world to improve the technology. He said the mission from UFC CEO Dana White was to create the best-in-class plan and that cost was no issue.
Some of the other changes in the new program were to address complaints from fighters about the old plan. One of the common complaints was being awakened very early. Featherweight champ Alex Volkanovski was awakened at 6 on the morning of a championship fight so a tester could collect a sample. Other fighters, he said, were required to give a sample while they were wrapped in a blanket cutting weight after not having ingested fluids for more than a day.
They're hoping to increase EPO testing and will do Growth Hormone Releasing Sample on every sample collected.
