Dana White Confirms Submission of Conor McGregor’s Paperwork for USADA Testing

The gears finally appear to be shifting in the right direction for
Conor
McGregor’s return to the Octagon.

The former
Ultimate Fighting Championship two-division champion has been
out of action for over two years, nursing a broken leg suffered in
his trilogy clash against Dustin
Poirier (29-8). After months of back-and-forth with the United
States Anti-Doping Agency about returning to their testing pool,
McGregor (22-6) finally seems to have taken some significant
steps.

“Notorious” recently claimed to have submitted the paperwork for
re-entering the USADA testing pool to the UFC’s Senior Vice
President of Athlete Health and Performance, Jeff Novitzky. UFC CEO
Dana White has now confirmed the same while noting that the
Irishman will be officially back in the pool next week.

“He’s not officially in the USADA pool,” White said. “He submitted
the paperwork; probably by Monday it’ll be submitted.”

McGregor has repeatedly teased a return by the end of the year,
which will require him to get a special exemption from USADA from a
mandatory six-month testing period. However, if the Dubliner does
undergo the six-month testing window, his return timeline might
just align with the promotion’s marquee event, UFC 300, which goes
down next spring. Asked if it is an appealing idea, White said that
he has nothing in mind for McGregor at the moment. The UFC head
honcho added:

“I literally have nothing planned with Conor McGregor right now.
The paperwork is being submitted, we’ll play it by ear, see how
things work out. There’s still a lot of things that have to happen
as far as fights go. Then we’ll decide where he’s going to land.”