Joe Rogan Hits Back At USADA Following Their Departure From The UFC – ‘They’re Wrong’

Joe Rogan has given his take on USADA and the UFC parting ways at the end of the year.

USADA had confirmed that they would not be renewing their contract in 2024, which would end their working relationship with the UFC as the organisation’s official drug-testing agency.

Those comments were confirmed by the CEO of USADA, Travis Tygart. However, the latter’s following comments had suggested that the UFC may have showed some resistance to the idea of Conor McGregor providing USADA with two negatives samples over a six-month period as part of their rules before fighters can compete.

USADA’s Departure

“We have been clear and firm with the UFC that there should be no exception given by the UFC for McGregor to fight until he has returned two negative tests and been in the pool for at least six months. Despite a positive and productive meeting about a contract renewal in May 2023, the UFC did an about-face and informed USADA on Monday, October 9, that it was going in a different direction.

“We are disappointed for UFC athletes, who are independent contractors who rely on our independent, gold-standard global program to protect their rights to a clean, safe, and fair Octagon. The UFC’s move imperils the immense progress made within the sport under USADA’s leadership. 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,” USADA said

That was met with a huge amount of criticism from Dana White since it implied that the UFC was not cooperating with a drug testing organization in a manner that they should have been.

In response, Drug Free Sport International became the UFC’s drug testing organization moving forward, but not before White hit back at the insinuations.

White On USADA

“Well, let me just start with this, it wasn’t an announcement, it was a dirty move by them. There was no announcement yesterday. That was straight scumbag-ism what happened yesterday. So that will all be addressed today, not by me. I’ll let Novitzky and our lawyer Hunter Campbell handle that. The you-know-what is about to hit the fan on that one,” White revealed

Now that the dust has settled down somewhat, Rogan had a few choice words of his own. The UFC commentator debunked the narrative that McGregor was not being cooperative since the fighter has entered into USADA testing.

Therefore, there were other issues at play that had been impacting fighters, who may not have been that fully happy with the way that things were being done. Rogan’s following comments confirmed as much.

Rogan On USADA

“They said they were doing it for Conor McGregor, so they could get Conor McGregor and not have to test him. That’s what they insinuated, which is not true because Conor McGregor entered into the USADA pool and supplied two tests so far. So, they’re wrong. The problem was they were waking guys up at 6:30 in the morning on their f****** weigh-in day. They were doing crazy s*** like that trying to get samples the day of the fight,” Rogan

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