UFC, USADA announce end to anti-doping program, 3 days after Conor McGregor re-enters

According to a statement from USADA, the UFC and USADA will be ending their partnership.

The outlet reported that "As of January 1, 2024, USADA will no longer be involved with the UFC Anti-Doping Program. Despite a positive and productive meeting about a contract renewal in May 2023, the UFC did an about-face and informed USADA on Monday, October 9, that it was going a different direction."

This news comes just days after former UFC champion Conor McGregor announced that he had finally re-entered the USADA testing pool in order to make his long-awaited UFC return.

Earlier this year USADA and McGregor got into a public battle over McGregor skipping the six-month testing period, which is standard for all athletes returning from retirement.

“We can confirm that Conor McGregor has re-entered the USADA testing pool as of Sunday, October 8, 2023," the statement reads. "We have been clear and firm with the UFC that there should be no exception given by the UFC for McGregor to fight until he has returned two negative tests and been in the pool for at least six months. The rules also allow USADA to keep someone in the testing pool longer before competing based on their declarations upon entry in the pool and testing results."

Michael Chandler, McGregor's future opponent seemingly reacted to the news on Twitter.

USADA has been widely considered to be an improvement in terms of the health and safety of the athletes and it remains to be seen what steps will be taken in 2024 in regards to drug testing.