Starting January 2024, the UFC will no longer work with USADA. However, the American organization has found a replacement.
Starting in 2024, the UFC will collaborate with Drug Free Sport International to manage their athletes’ anti-doping program. This was announced Thursday by UFC Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Hunter Campbell and Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitsky.
The UFC's senior vice president of health and sports performance, Jeff Nowitzki, has gone into depth that after terminating its contract with USADA in 2024, the organization will contract with Drug Free Sport International. pic.twitter.com/8pMCuISwcu
— mmamag.ma (@jamalsoussi10) October 13, 2023
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is terminating its agreement with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) just days after former UFC champion Conor McGregor re-entered the testing pool.
McGregor announced on social media that he has returned to the USADA testing pool, a step he must take before returning to the octagon for the first time since suffering a broken leg during his last fight in July 2021.
This news comes after the declaration of USADA (American anti-doping agency), which announced that it would no longer collaborate with the UFC from January 2024. Furthermore, the case of Conor McGregor has something to do with it. Campbell spoke to MMA Junkie.
UFC replaces USADA
“Eight years ago, when Jeff came to work with Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Laurence Epstein and the entire team to build this program, there was no other way than to work with USADA . I would say that for the first six years of the program, USADA has been an incredible partner. We have implemented the best testing program in all of professional sport. »
He continued: “(…) We have not ended the partnership with USADA. We simply informed them that we would not renew the partnership and that we would implement a new program at the beginning of the year. So the testing continues, everything is status quo until the end of the year, until something happens differently, I don’t know. The relationship is going to be complicated over the next few months. Conor (McGregor) is 100% in the pool (USADA test group). »
The UFC has worked with USADA since 2015, and will continue to manage the anti-doping program until December 31. The agency that will take over, Drug Free Sport International, has been involved in anti-doping programs for more than twenty years, and works in particular with the NFL (National Football League) and the NBA (National Basketball Association). The independent administrator of the UFC anti-doping program will be George Piro.
