The noisy withdrawal of USADA from its relationship with UFC is unraveling before our eyes as the UFC called a press conference on Thursday to announce its new testing partner, Drug Free Sport International, and comment on Travis Tygart’s comments regarding Conor McGregor.
The UFC’s Hunter Campbell talked legal action against USADA for the organization’s handling of Conor McGregor’s return to the anti-doping drug testing pool. Campbell called for USADA to issue a formal apology by Thursday at 5pm PT but that apology did not occur.
In his comments on Thursday, Campbell was pointed and stated that Tygart “lost his mind” in a phone call with Jeff Novitsky and himself when he told Tygart that they would be building out another program in 2024. The partnership will go through 2023 and Campbell stated that these last couple of months will be “complicated” based on this past week.
The UFC sent out a link to the press conference Thursday so that all media would get a chance to listen.
Novitsky stated that USADA’s statement from Tygart was “garbage” and “trash.”
Some takeaways from this weeks UFC v. USADA fight.
Will the UFC sue USADA or vice versa? It would seem that the partnership deteriorated over time and the handling of Conor McGregor’s return was the last straw in the strained relationship. USADA’s statements this week were surprising and highlighted the issue to which the organization had had it. One would assume when partnerships end, that nothing is said about the reasons for the termination of it. But, it was clear that USADA wanted to point out why it was ending the relationship. Based on Tygart’s statements, he wanted to make a point as to who was at fault for the severance of ties. On the other hand, the UFC called the press conference to rebut Tygart’s statement and also announce its new partnership in 2024. This would dispel any rumors that the UFC would not have drug testing or they would self-regulate. Novitsky stated, “they[USADA] confused the sh-t out of our fighter,” in relation to Tygart’s comments earlier this week.
Campbell talked about defamation of the company. If a lawsuit were to come to pass, it could mean that we see what the parties were talking about and the inner workings of USADA.
On the other hand, USADA may file a defamation of action. A lot was said by Campbell and Novitsky during the press conference. Notably, Campbell stated that Tygart was in “self-preservation” mode and inferred that the UFC was one (if not) the biggest revenue driver for the organization. USADA could also claim that the press conference may act as a deterrent for future business for the organization due to characterization that Tygart went crazy in the phone call with himself and Novitsky.
The new independent administrator is George Piro. Novitsky called him a man with the “highest level of integrity and credibility that you can imagine.” Piro was an FBI agent and was tasked with interrogating Saddam Hussein. He also is a BJJ practitioner in his mid-50s.
The dispute between the organizations boiled over with the reintroduction of Conor McGregor to the antidoping drug testing pool. While the UFC negated the “narrative” put out by USADA that McGregor may not be in the drug testing pool for a full 6 months prior to a fight, it was clear that USADA had reservations on what the plan would be for McGregor’s return. There are a lot of inferences (whether right or not) here that either McGregor may have taken banned substances while out of the testing pool or that USADA was concerned that having McGregor come back too early may not provide safeguards guaranteed by the program. One might also infer that McGregor’s return included customizations to benefit the athlete. Or, that he was taking supplements not known or readily handled by USADA.
MPO will continue to follow.
In the end, we have the ending of a partnership of 6 years which was strained by the return of McGregor. Athletes in the past, have been critical of USADA and its drug testing program so we will see if DFSI will fall under the same scrutiny the first time a fighter is flagged for a banned substance.
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