LAS VEGAS — The UFC has threatened legal action against the United States Anti-Doping Agency following a statement Wednesday by USADA announcing the end of the partnership between the two organizations.
Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s chief business officer, said during a news conference Thursday that he sent a legal letter to USADA Wednesday evening accusing it of defamation and demanding that it issue a retraction and apology before 5 p.m. Thursday.
Campbell and UFC director Jeff Novitzky also announced Thursday that the UFC would use Drug Free Sport to collect drug test samples starting next year and that the UFC’s anti-doping program would be run by former FBI agent George Piro as independent director.
In USADA’s statement Wednesday, CEO Travis Tygart released a statement saying the agency would cease being the UFC’s anti-doping partner effective Jan. 1, 2024. Tygart wrote that the UFC has made a “about-face” in their relationship on Monday due to USADA’s decision. stance on Conor McGregor’s status.
USADA argued that McGregor would have to spend six months in the drug testing pool before he could compete in the UFC again. McGregor retired from the pool after breaking his leg during a fight in July 2021.
The UFC’s anti-doping policy states that a fighter must spend six months in the pool and pass two drug tests before competing. The UFC can, however, grant an exception to the six-month rule if it believes it would be unfair to the athlete.
Tygart said in the statement that the relationship between the UFC and USADA had become “untenable” due to the situation with UFC star McGregor.
In an interview with TSN in July, UFC President Dana White said, “Who cares what USADA says? in reference to McGregor’s status.
“The long-term health and safety of fighters – in addition to a fair and level playing field – are more important to USADA than short-term profits at the expense of clean athletes,” Tygart wrote in the statement.
During Thursday’s press conference at the UFC Apex, Novitzky called Tygart’s statement and USADA’s narrative “bulls—.” Campbell said the statement was a “total misrepresentation” and “couldn’t be further from the truth.” Campbell said he had argued to Tygart for months that McGregor would spend six months in the drug testing pool before competing again and that he did not care whether McGregor had to take “37 tests” to prove that he was clean before returning to the Octagon. Campbell said what USADA did to McGregor was “disgusting” and there could be legal liability.
In a three-page letter sent to USADA on Thursday by the UFC’s outside counsel, there was an allegation of defamation and that the UFC had the right to assert such an allegation “when the harmful comments have a negative impact on his reputation, integrity and honesty, which is exactly what happened here.
“McGregor is 100 percent in the pool,” Campbell said. “He behaved with integrity and honesty. He did everything right. As you can imagine, he is very upset about what they did to him. They did enormous damage.”
In a statement to ESPN on Thursday after the press conference, Tygart wrote: “We stand by our statement and our credibility.”
Tygart told ESPN on Wednesday that McGregor re-entered the drug testing panel on Sunday and that the call with the UFC, which ended the partnership, took place on Monday.
“Our insistence, and the public’s insistence, that the six-month rule applies to all athletes, including Conor McGregor, is in place – that clearly upset them and is what led them to the about-face they made starting in May,” Tygart said. .
“They don’t like anyone else having influence, I guess, the rules should apply to every athlete. No athlete is above the rules. Even if you’re a corporation publicly traded and you could make $100 million at the end of the fiscal year, or something like that.
Tygart said there was “never any negotiation over the financials” of renewing the contract. USADA has requested $7 million from the UFC for next year, Tygart said, which is not much more than the UFC had paid the agency for each of the last eight years.
Campbell told ESPN that there was indeed mention of money in discussions with USADA, but the UFC decided to leave USADA because it believed it could put together a better program. The UFC, Campbell said, had been thinking about this question for a year.
USADA also conducts drug testing for Olympic athletes in the United States and recently signed a contract to manage the PFL’s anti-doping program.
“All we have is our integrity, and everything else is secondary,” Tygart said. “Whether it’s Lance Armstrong, whether it’s [the] BALCO [scandal], we will do the right things for the right reasons. They are not always popular. And certainly, we’ve seen sports organizations over the years that don’t like the positions that we take. Here we go again.”
