Conor McGregor Receives 18-Month Suspension for Doping Violations
The renowned mixed martial arts fighter, Conor McGregor, has been suspended for 18 months by the UFC’s anti-doping program, Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD). The suspension, which began on September 20, 2024, will extend until March 20, 2026. This sanction comes after McGregor failed to meet the location requirements for anti-doping tests. Failures in location controls, also known as “whereabout failures”, occurred on three separate occasions during 2024.The lost tests occurred on June 13, September 19, and September 20, 2024. On June 13, the day the scheduled McGregor vs. Michael Chandler fight at UFC 303 was canceled, also coincided with one of the fighter’s location failures. CSAD acknowledged that McGregor was in the process of recovering from an injury and was not preparing for a fight at the time of the failed tests. Despite the failures, McGregor fully cooperated with the CSAD investigation, accepting responsibility and providing detailed information. Due to cooperation and mitigating circumstances, CSAD reduced the standard 24-month sanction for three location failures in six months. The current suspension will end on March 20, 2026. This suspension comes a day after McGregor announced on X that he would be taking an indefinite break from social media. Currently, the former two-division champion is in the UFC’s drug testing pool, having submitted four samples in 2025.McGregor did not provide precise information about his whereabouts, which prevented the performance of unannounced anti-doping tests.
CSAD Statement
