Midnight Mania: Leave Connie Alone!!!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

It’s safe to say that the UFC and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) bridge hasn’t just been burned, it’s been nuked from orbit. Yesterday, news broke that the two companies would no longer be doing business at the start of 2024, and that announcement included an incendiary comment from USADA officials about Conor McGregor’s usage of performance-enhancing drugs to recover from injury.

UFC didn’t take that claim lying down. UFC CEO Dana White lashed back at the “scumbag” company, and UFC CBO Hunter Campbell held a special press conference to announce the promotion’s new drug testing plan moving forward. During the conference, Campbell expressly denied pushing for a McGregor to return on a faster timeline. As such, he attacked back at USADA’s official statement.

“At no point in time did Jeff, myself, or any other UFC representative, Dana – not a single person ever went to USADA and told them anything other than Conor McGregor would re-enter the program when he was healthy,” Campbell said (via MMA Junkie). “In doing so, we would require him to be in the program for six months. There would be no exception to the rule. What I said to Travis on multiple occasions, including the call on Monday, was there would never be a situation where Conor would fight until he had been in the program for six months. And my words were, ‘I don’t give a s—t if he has 37 clean tests.’ This is one of those cases where Conor was the most tested athlete in the UFC before he catastrophically shattered his leg.

“The conversations I had with Conor and his physician when that occurred had nothing to do with fighting, they were legitimately concerned he wasn’t going to regain full use of his leg ever again, including the ligaments around it. And I’ll say it one last time, what they’ve done to him is disgusting. For an entity that holds themself out to have a level of honor and integrity, using him as a media vehicle to advance a fake narrative is disturbing, disgusting, and I think they have some legitimate legal liability that they should be very concerned with.”

Campbell and UFC are willing to take legal action to combat this “fake narrative.” The promotion wants to protect its star, as well as its reputation. To that end, Campbell sent a letter demanding USADA walk back its words and apologize to both parties, and they set a deadline … that expired a few hours ago.

“We hereby demand that you publish an appropriate retraction and apology to the UFC by no later than Thursday, October 12 at 5:00 p.m.,” a letter from Campbell’s law firm to Tygart states. “The retraction should acknowledge the falsity of the representations of the statement that express or imply the UFC ended its relationship with USADA in order to expedite McGregor’s return to the UFC. The retraction should also acknowledge the UFC’s repeated representations to you that McGregor will not fight in the UFC until he has spent six months in the testing pool and returned two clean tests as required by the ADP.”

USADA has responded, and it’s not an answer UFC is likely to be impressed by — they’re standing their ground.

Stay tuned for further updates to this still-developing story.

@HenryCejudo first of all put respect on my name. there is no contract!What should I sign? Since Sean O’malley doesn’t want the smoke of a real contender and the UFC gives their boy what he wants,I will fight you. I am not sitting around waiting. I’m here and ready to go. pic.twitter.com/fHCcxNlRqK

— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) October 11, 2023