After being publicly lambasted in a press release by anti-doping partner USADA just yesterday, the UFC has fired back. First, in the form of UFC President and CEO Dana White calling USADA’s press release, which referred to the relationship between the companies as “untenable,” a “scumbag move” on the part of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, while speaking on the Pat McAfee show.
Later in the day, UFC Executive Vice President and the Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell and UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky addressed the media (h/t The Mac Life), to give the promotion’s side of a stunning and very public falling out between USADA and its largest customer.
“I think disappointingly they used Conor McGregor as a vehicle to sort of try to articulate and re-frame a complete misrepresentation of what occurred over the last several months,” said Campbell, who joined the UFC in 2016, shortly after the relationship between the UFC and USADA kicked off. “What I can categorically tell you is that what USADA has put out in the last 48 hours could not be— it couldn’t be father from the truth.”
Campbell noted that when the UFC first launched its anti-doping program eight years ago, “there wasn’t a mechanism to do this in any other way other than using USADA. And frankly for the first six years of the program, USADA was an incredible partner.”
In the last several years, however, “there’s been a tremendous amount of technological change that’s occurred,” Campbell continued. “And not only has there been a massive amount of change, there’s been a fundamental change in the science that’s gone into it as well as the players in the space. So you have a majority of the professional sports that all have anti-doping programs now. A lot of them from what I understand were also build off of what Jeff and Dana and Lorenzo [Fertitta] and everybody built when they build this program to begin with.”
Campbell also noted that “we were the entity that pushed for changes with thresholds in contaminated supplements. They fought us on that the majority of the time and now this is the standard they’re pushing for globally at the WADA level. And I could list a million others.”
Campbell referenced a legal letter sent to USADA on Tuesday, whose core focus is “the material misrepresentations that I believe were made on behalf of USADA and Travis.” Campbell added that the he and Jeff Novitzky “had always approached this program and everybody involved in it with a level and class and dignity and frankly professionalism that I don’t think has been exhibited [on the part of USADA].”
Campbell then confirmed that the UFC will move to Drug Free Sport, as professional horse racing also has. The organization works with the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and other sporting organizations.
When it comes to USADA, “I’m grateful for the work we’ve done with them. I appreciate what they’ve done for us, and we wouldn’t be able to be in the position that we’re at today without their help and assistance. And frankly up until the last I would call it two or three years, the relationship really was a productive and incredibly beneficial relationship for all parties.”
Campbell added that USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart had “backtracked” on his statements and confirmed that “not a single person ever went to USADA and told them anything other than Conor McGregor would re-enter the program when he was healthy, and in doing so we would require him to be in the program for six months. There would be no exception to the rule. And what I said to Travis on multiple occasions including the call on Monday was there would never be a situation where Conor would fight until he had been in the program for six months, and my words were ‘I don’t give a sh*t if he has 37 clean tests.'”
At the same time, Campbell pointed out that McGregor had been tested more than any other UFC fighter at the time of his injury.
“This was one of those cases where, Conor was the most tested athlete in the UFC before he catastrophically shattered his leg. The conversations I had with Conor and his physician when that occurred had nothing to do with fighting. They were legitimate concerned they he wasn’t going to regain full use of his leg ever again, including the ligaments around it. And I’ll say it one last time: what they’ve done to him is disgusting. And for an entity that holds themself out to have a level of honor and integrity, using him as a media vehicle to advance a fake narrative is disturbing, disgusting, and I think they have some legitimate legal liability that I think they should be very concerned about.”
Later, Campbell suggested USADA had used McGregor to get attention. “They used an athlete as a vehicle to advance a false narrative. I think it’s incredibly unethical. Incredibly.”
Novitzky echoed many of Campbell’s sentiments, calling USADA’s previously issued statements “false, it’s garbage, trash, I can’t sit up here and come up with enough adjectives and what that’s done to this program currently.”
Novitzky also said some light into the new-look UFC Anti-Doping program, noting that Drug Free Sport featured “5000 strong international collectors, in 100 countries,” and offered “easier and more efficient contact on a global scale.”
Serving as an advisor to the program will be Daniel Eichner of SMRTL Labs, one of two WADA-accredited laboratories in the U.S.
Based on the recommendation of Dr. Eichner, the UFC will also “increase special analysis testing from what we do now. This includes EPO testing, in my estimation one of the most dangerous drugs in our sport. When we launch this program January 1, we will conduct EPO special analysis at the highest rate of any sport federation in the world.”
The promotion has also hired former Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge George Piro, who handled the interrogation of Saddam Hussein, to oversee the program, in conjunction with experts like Eichner, with Drug Free Sport handling the testing apparatus.
Representatives for USADA and Conor McGregor did not respond to a request for comment regarding this story.
