Conor McGregor received an 18-month suspension for violating the UFC’s anti-doping policy after three Whereabouts failures, which resulted in a trio of missed drug tests for the former two-division champion.
In the statement issued by Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) — the in-house agency enforcing the UFC’s anti-doping policy — McGregor was given a six-month reprieve from a standard two-year suspension, because he cooperated with the investigation and was not preparing for an upcoming fight when he missed the three drug tests. McGregor is cleared to compete again after March 20, 2026, which is an important date, because that won’t prevent him from possibly returning at the planned UFC White House card in June.
The suspension and the date when McGregor is allowed to compete again raised more than a few eyebrows given the significance of that White House event, but UFC legend Matt Brown says there’s a much bigger problem at the heart of this entire ordeal and it all comes down to the power the promotion maintains over every aspect of the business.
“UFC controls the doping,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Who’s to say they’re not letting certain people dope and not even saying anything? They could absolutely be doing it and just not saying anything.
“Do I think they’re doing that? It doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant whether they are or not. If they have the power to do it, that’s what matters. I don’t know what it’s going to take for fighters [to step up], I don’t know if it’s possible for fighters to ever step up and be like ‘yo, this is some bullshit.’”
The UFC previously paid the United States Anti-Doping Agency to facilitate the company’s anti-doping policy, but the two sides split after the most recent contract between them was coming to an end. That entire situation blew up publicly due to another infraction involving McGregor after he was plotting his return to action, which required him to get back into the UFC’s anti-doping program to submit to testing again.
While the issues between the UFC and USADA apparently went much deeper than just dealing with McGregor’s situation, the end result was introducing this new entity known as CSAD.
UFC officials have stressed that CSAD operates independently with decision making regarding potential punishments or sanctions landing directly on director George Piro, who heads up the agency after he previously served in the FBI before retiring from law enforcement.
But Brown can’t help but confess skepticism about the validity of McGregor’s suspension or anybody else for that matter because CSAD is still fully funded and operated by the UFC.
“Whoever’s fighting Conor, are they not going to be like what the f*ck?” Brown said. “He knows what’s happening. You’re going to tell me if the UFC’s controlling the doping, and they’re doing a White House card next year, and then say Conor fails a test the week before, are they not going to be like ‘all right Conor, we can’t really say anything right now.’ What the f*ck are they going to do? Are they going to pull out Conor from the f*cking White House event?
“Or if Jon Jones is the main event and Alex Pereira and those guys both piss hot the week before? Are they just going to stop the f*cking main event for the White House card? You’ve got to think that’s why they got rid of USADA and why they wanted the control.”
Of course, Brown never totally bought into the entire anti-doping program at the UFC anyways, because he’s seen plenty of evidence that shows just how difficult it is to actually catch somebody cheating if they’ve got the means and ability to beat the tests.
In McGregor’s case, he never tested positive for any banned substances and his suspension only dealt with him missing drug tests. That said, Brown doesn’t doubt for a second that McGregor or anybody with his kinds of financial means couldn’t find a way around getting busted.
“It’s just not right,” Brown said. “We could get deep into the subject of drug testing. I think it’s for the most part it’s kind of garbage anyway. Not anybody but the vast majority that can afford to beat a drug test are beating the drug test. It’s a cat and mouse game and the mice have a huge head start. There’s things that you don’t know about, that I don’t know about that we’ve never heard of, there’s a lot of money in this industry of beating drug tests.
“When you’re talking about dealing with multi-million dollar athletes around the world, and you’re the guy that can help them beat a drug test and still get them on shit, you’re a f*cking multi-millionaire. There’s a lot of money in this shit. It’s just when you’re an athlete, can you afford this or not?”
Regardless of the UFC’s anti-doping program or the suspension issued, Brown has long believed that McGregor would never actually fight again.
It’s been over four years since McGregor suffered a gruesome broken leg in a fight against Dustin Poirier and his planned return in 2024 was scrapped after he suffered a broken toe in training. Since that time, McGregor hasn’t really hinted at when he would fight again until the announcement about the UFC White House card now scheduled for June 14.
McGregor even teased that he wanted $100 million for his appearance at that event, which Brown believes might be an even bigger hurdle for the UFC to clear when it comes to his potential return.
“I’ve said it before if you take a calculation of his net worth, it makes zero f*cking sense for him to fight for the amount of money that [the UFC] will pay him. Period,” Brown said. “My conspiracy theory is he’s going to want them to plan for it, but he has no intention of fighting.
“My other theory is he may just be getting some PR and then be like f*ck off. Either way, he will not show up on the date of the [White House card]. He will not fight ever again in our lifetime unless it’s boxing, Misfits Boxing, Conor McGregor promotions, something along those lines. For the UFC, never again.”
When it comes to the UFC’s control over the anti-doping program and so many other facets of the business, Brown can’t help but wonder if that’s ever going to change.
“We’re not going to do f*cking jack shit about it,” Brown said. “Can we do jack shit about it? That’s the question.”
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