Conor McGregor Officially Back in USADA Testing Pool, When's His Next UFC Fight?
Irish MMA superstar Conor McGregor is officially back in the USADA testing pool, according to USADA's own database listed on their website.
Despite McGregor allegedly submitting his samples on October 5, his name didn't appear on the USADA site until the last 24 hours. The database shows McGregor has submitted three samples and has been tested once.
Since McGregor is technically coming out of retirement, he will need to be present in the pool for at least six months before competing, as per the USADA UFC Athlete handbook. Athletes can bypass the six month rule under "exceptional circumstances," and instead they need to submit two negative samples. These exceptional circumstances are referenced twice in the handbook, but their meaning is never truly discussed.
So When is Conor McGregor Fighting Next?
If we assume the USADA website was late to update, and McGregor did re-enter the pool on October 5, that means he'll have to wait in the testing pool until April 5, 2024. There are no UFC events currently scheduled for that time, but UFC 300 could definitely happen around then.
If McGregor is eligible for "exceptional circumstances," then he should only need one more negative test result to be viable for competition.
Who Will He Fight?
McGregor is slated to fight Michael Chandler, and even coached against him on season 31 of 'The Ultimate Fighter'. However, "The Notorious" has disregarded Chandler on more than one occasion, and has called out other fighters such as Justin Gaethje. Even prominent UFC employees like Daniel Cormier are calling for McGregor to fight the likes of Islam Makhachev, so it's unclear.
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