Conor McGregor Claims Progress in United States Anti-Doping Agency Testing Protocol

Conor McGregor finally appears to have taken a step towards returning to the Octagon.

“Notorious” has been out of action for over two years since suffering a broken leg in his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier. While he has been training and sparring for a while now, the former two-division champion has yet to re-enter the United States Anti-Doping Agency testing pool, from which he has been missing since the third quarter of 2021.

The Irishman could seek an exemption from the mandatory six-month testing window that USADA has in place for testing athletes. Brock Lesnar received such clearance in July of 2016 to compete at UFC 200. However, the testing agency has maintained so far that McGregor will need to undergo the six-month testing window in addition to submitting two clean samples to be eligible for a return.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White has redirected all questions regarding McGregor's situation to UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, Jeff Novitzky.

McGregor (22-6), who keeps teasing a return to the Octagon, now claims to have taken things forward with Novitzky on Instagram:

“Find my targets. Hit them. Fu*k the consequences. You’re going down. This is fighting. Sparring day with slick @grozdevnikolay. Always a banger of a spar with the slick fella. Submitted my stuff to Novitzky. Ball rolling ⚽️ see you soon you little light work bit*h.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma)