Dana White: USADA's scathing announcement of UFC partnership ending 'was a dirty move'

UFC CEO Dana White doesn’t appreciate how the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency went about announcing the news of its partnership ending with the UFC.

“Let me just start with this: It wasn’t an announcement,” White said Thursday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “It was a dirty move by them.”

On Wednesday, USADA CEO Travis Tygart issued a statement on the split between the UFC and USADA, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024. The breakup was announced just as USADA also announced that Conor McGregor re-entered the drug-testing pool after months of uncertainty surrounding his status.

McGregor has been preparing for a UFC comeback fight following a long layoff caused by a broken leg suffered in his July 2021 TKO loss to Dustin Poirier. McGregor withdrew from the USADA testing pool as he worked to rehabilitate and recover from his injury.

Tygart’s statement made it clear that differences over whether McGregor should be granted an exemption from USADA’s six-month testing window drove a wedge between the UFC and USADA.

“The UFC’s move imperils the immense progress made within the sport under USADA’s leadership,” Tygart said. “The relationship between USADA and UFC became untenable given the statements made by UFC leaders and others questioning USADA’s principled stance that McGregor not be allowed to fight without being in the testing pool for at least six months. One UFC commentator echoed this, recently declaring that USADA should not oversee the UFC program since we held firm to the six-month rule involving McGregor, and since we do not allow fighters without an approved medical basis to use performance-enhancing drugs like experimental, unapproved peptides or testosterone for healing or injuries simply to get back in the Octagon.”

Those words and more from Tygart did not sit well with White.

“There was no announcement yesterday,” White said. “That was straight-up scumbagism.”

USADA has been the UFC’s independent drug-testing partner since 2015, with the agency testing fighters in and out of competition for more than eight years.

It remains to be seen in which direction the UFC will go with a drug-testing program after the new year begins, but White indicated it won’t be in house.

“We would still pay an independent company,” White said. “It’s the best way to do it. We have a standard that we’ve set here, but a lot of people are not happy with USADA. Our deal is up at the end of the year, and we’re working on going in another direction.”