Conor McGregor points out potential flaws in USADA program, but praises UFC efforts

UFC interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor said he’s been drug tested at least eight times in advance of his title unification bout against champ Jose Aldo at UFC 194.

The most recent one, he said, came at 6 a.m. in the morning at his temporary residence in Los Angeles – an unpleasant wakeup call.

“It was still dark out here in California and they dragged me out of bed for blood and urine,” he told reporters Wednesday during a media luncheon in support of the Dec. 12 pay-per-view event at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Although inconvenient, red-eye brushes with regulators are seen as part of the game for McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC), who approaches the biggest fight of his career against rival Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC). But after experiencing the process firsthand, he is struck more by his opponent’s testing history leading up to their showdown.

He’s also more critical about the way testing is carried out on foreign soil, particularly when it comes to Aldo’s native Brazil.

McGregor said he isn’t impressed by a picture posted by the champ documenting a drug test with USADA in the run up to their fight. He sees Aldo playing a PR game with a program that’s supposed to be removed from politics.

“It’s funny, I’m saying more and more that it’s almost like (Jose) has to say, ‘Hey, look, I’m doing it. I’m posing for the picture. I told you I’d do it,’” McGregor said. “Because of the fiasco that happened the last time when they called the police and got the guy that came to take the test arrested and threw the piss test down the toilet and all this.

“It’s like they’re saying, ‘We’ve done it this time. Where’s your one this time?’ Well, I’ve done it when I was supposed to do it on the original. I did it without complaint. I don’t need to post anything about it or say anything about it.”

McGregor passed several out-of-competition drug tests in connection with UFC 189, where he defeated Chad Mendes to become the interim champ. Aldo, who withdrew from the event with a broken rib, passed a single urine test in advance of his ill-fated booking, but not before two botched attempts that resulted in the brief arrest of an American tester acting on behalf of the event’s overseeing Nevada State Athletic Commission.

An unfortunate footnote from Aldo’s test was a reported autograph request from a doping control officer working for the Brazilian Athletic Commission (CABMMA), which took over the process after the initial snafu and invited the American tester to observe the process.

McGregor believes that type of behavior undermines the credibility of the UFC’s anti-doping program, which is overseen by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The interim champ believes that ultimately, there should be more distance between the testers and the tested.

“I think it’s a flawed system if I’m being honest,” he said. “The UFC are taking great steps to clean the sport and it’s phenomenal what they’re doing. But still, it’s a flawed system. The Irish Sports Council were hired by USADA to come and test me. So, that’s Irish people coming to test me. If they’re coming to test me, then the same people who are testing Jose are the Brazilian commission. The same people who were asking for selfies, who train in the gym, who will look the other way when a piss test gets thrown over his shoulder. It’s still a flawed system, I feel. But the steps are there.”

While USADA oversees the UFC’s program, the firm works with other anti-doping agencies in carrying out testing beyond U.S. borders, though it maintains that testing procedures for UFC athletes are uniform around the world.

USADA’s Senior Communications Director Annie Skinner said in Brazil drug test samples were collected by the Brazilian Anti-Doping Agency (ABCD), which follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s international standard for testing and investigations.

“USADA handles all of the results management for the samples collected on our behalf by ABCD,” she wrote in an email to MMAjunkie.

A CABMMA official, meanwhile, insists the Brazilian anti-doping agency plays a central part in the UFC’s anti-doping program. Following a query into drug testing procedures conducted for UFC Fight Night 77, which took place Nov. 7 in Sao Paulo, spokesperson Cristiano Sampaio told MMAjunkie that CABMMA’s anti-doping program had been “unified” with the USADA-run UFC program, with CABMMA and USADA jointly reporting drug test results to the UFC and jointly announcing any positives after USADA’s results management process.

McGregor said his tests were conducted by the Irish Sports Council, an organization dedicated to the development of sport in Ireland which purports to follow the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

But when it came to his opponent, he claimed a culture of doping exists in Brazil. He said the UFC’s program needs to bypass that in order to maintain the integrity of drug testing.

“Performance enhancing drugs or steroids – you can walk in to a chemist in Brazil and pick that up,” he said. “It’s part of the culture. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s just the way they are. That’s the way life is over there. You can walk into a chemist and say, ‘You know what? I’d like a little bit more on that.’ And the chemist is like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got just what you need for that.’ And give you something just like that. Legal. It’s not looked down upon. It’s just the way of life over there. You can’t hire a Brazilian commission and expect it to be done – I still just think it’s a flawed system.”

McGregor’s opinions fall short of outright protest, however. He’s convinced that even with a flawed system, he will prevail against Aldo.

“I don’t care,” he said. “You can’t put them on the chin, and that’s what I’m going for, the chin.”

For more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.