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

Dana White says Conor McGregor has submitted the paperwork to rejoin USADA 👀 pic.twitter.com/1N3oHVXv3E

— Sherdog (@sherdogdotcom) October 8, 2023

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.”