USADA Hatchet Job May Have Been ‘Not Smart’ Negotiating Tactic

USADA and UFC are breaking up.

Instead of quietly parting ways at the beginning of 2024, USADA CEO Brittney Spears Travis Tygart preemptively issued an incendiary press release that not only announced the dissolution of its UFC relationship, but also buried the world’s preeminent MMA promotion for trying to bend the rules to accommodate Irish cash cow Conor McGregor.

Read that scathing statement here.

“You are not a speaker, you are not a thinker, you are not a drug tester, you are not a scientist,” former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen said during his roast of Tygart on YouTube (transcribed by MMA News). “Somewhere you got this role, just keep the suit on and take the role. [UFC] didn’t announce they were gonna go in a different direction, which means it wasn’t there yet. It’s all part of a negotiation.”

A negotiation that may land USADA in court.

“When Tygart comes out with his statement and buries the UFC … I am left to wonder, was he trying to do damage to his own client or was he trying to negotiate?” Sonnen continued. “He might have thought, ‘I’m in the middle of a negotiation. I’ve got a Hail Mary pass left and that is to get the media and have the media put pressure on the organization to bring them back to me.’ He might have thought that. He’s not a thinker this guy. This is not a smart guy.”

The drug war is over … and Conor McGregor won.

Following USADA’s departure in the coming months, UFC will partner with Drug Free Sport International (DFSI) under the watchful eye of George Piro, the former FBI special agent and Team Leader of the Saddam Hussein Interrogation Squad back in 2004. Dr. Dan Eichner will handle the laboratory analysis at the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) in Utah.

For much more on the end of UFC’s partnership with USADA click here.