Former UFC two-division champion, ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor recently responded to ‘cheating’ accusations made by another top UFC lightweight contender Beneil Dariush. After almost a two-year absence from the fight game due to a nasty injury, McGregor will finally return to the octagon against Michael Chandler in the second half of this year.
The 34-year-old Irishman suffered a nasty leg break back in July 2021 during his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. Considering the severity of his injury, McGregor was expected to get an exemption from USADA during his recovery and healing process. Now, after almost 20 months since that incident, McGregor seems to be fully recovered and medically fit to enter active competition but surprisingly still hasn’t entered the USADA testing pool.
Talking about the whole McGregor-USADA situation, top lightweight contender Beneil Dariush took some verbal shots. He said “I think Conor is cheating, In reality, if you want to fix your knee or you want to fix your leg and get certain growth hormones or whatever he’s doing, you can get a therapeutic exemption. You can speak to USADA and get a therapeutic exemption – but you can’t add extra stuff. Whatever you are putting in, you have to declare with them and get it figured out“. He said in an interview with The Schmo “This is BS, to be honest with you. The fact that they say, ‘Oh, while he’s doing this, he’s not getting tested right now because of his leg.’ No, you can still get tested. You just have to declare and say, ‘Hey, this was a therapeutic exemption.’ But that’s not the case. He even put down ‘retirement’ (on forms), so he went into retirement, I guess. USADA recently said when you come out of retirement, you need six months and two clean tests. So this is garbage. But that’s the game.”
Responding to Dariush, McGregor in a now deleted tweet wrote, “beneil “the douche” dariush [laughing emeoji]”
Why hasn’t Conor McGregor entered the USADA testing pool yet?
“As we’ve confirmed before, as of today, Conor McGregor has not been reenrolled in the USADA testing pool, which he would have to be in for a minimum of six months and have at least two negative tests prior to any competition,” United States Anti-Doping Agency representatives said in a statement. When UFC president Dana White was asked about the whole situation, he responded “I have no idea. I don’t pay any attention to that shit, That’s not my job anymore, and I’m happy to be out of it. Talk to USADA, I have no idea. I want nothing to do with the whole drug-testing side of this business. It’s a f—king nightmare”.
McGregor in the last few months has certainly look bigger than ever. ‘The Notorious’ has bulked up so much that his next fight against Chandler will take place in the 170lb division even though both the fighters are regular lightweights. McGregor needs to give at least two clean tests in order to compete again. But when will that happen, only ‘The Notorious would tell.
