Joe Rogan believes Conor McGregor found a loophole in USADA that has given him a free pass to juice up while away from the Octagon.
The longtime UFC commentator and popular podcaster invited Derek from ‘More Plates, More Dates’ to discuss MMA’s favorite topic, Conor McGregor’s suspicious physical transformation. Derek recently released a video where he accused the former two-division champion of either using performance-enhancing drugs over the last year or photoshopping the plethora of images showing his newly jacked physique.
Getting into the conversation, Rogan first questioned whether or not McGregor could even return and be competitive following the devastating leg break he suffered in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
“I think Conor could still do it,” said Rogan. “The real question for me with Conor is what’s going on with his leg? His leg snapped in half and no one and I mean no one in combat sports has had their leg snapped in half and come back and been the same or better. Anderson Silva’s leg was f*cked. Corey Hill was the first guy in the UFC that I saw get his leg snapped and he never really was the same again.”
Another fighter that famously broke his leg in the Octagon was Chris Weidman. The former middleweight champion suffered the devastating injury in April 2021, just 17 seconds into a bout with Uriah Hall. McGregor had mentioned Weidman’s injury in a recent Twitter tirade that Rogan feels was just the Irishman’s way of justifying alleged steroid use.
“Not only that, he’s taking off his shirt and posing constantly and he looks like his piss would melt that USADA cup. Like it would just burn a hole right through the bottom of that USADA cup.”
Derek of MPMD noted a questionable statement made by McGregor in relation to USADA’s withdrawal.
“It almost seemed like he was justifying drug use at some point,” he said. “He was like ‘You don’t know what this is like.’ ‘I took myself out of the [USADA] pool, everything’s on board.’ And it was very suggestive of ‘This was within the rules and I had to do it, and f— you if you don’t agree with my decision.”
Joe Rogan Discusses USADA Loophole That Conor McGregor Looks to Exploit
Joe Rogan brought up a recent loophole that McGregory appears to be leaning on. The loophole is an exemption to USADA’s testing protocols which would allow a fighter to curb the standard six-month testing requirement. In this scenario, a fighter would be cleared to return after just two tests. The exemption was only used once before when Brock Lesnar returned to face Mark Hunt at UFC 200. Lesnar initially won the bout via decision, but it was later overturned to a no-contest after testing positive for a banned substance.
“The weird thing is that there’s a loophole in USADA that allows you to get out of the testing pool,” said Rogan. “Get out of the pool and you can just juice up. Seems weird and you just need six months. Like, if someone had an injury though, that’s a very wise way to approach it right? Like, what would potentially be good things you would take if you had a broken bone and you wanted it to heel quick?”
“HGH, peptides, androgens are very restorative, like they’ll reinforce bone mineral density,” Derek of MPMD said. “Like, there’s certain stuff that’s going to stay in the system for a long time he could never use, but anything pro-bone integrity, I would be highly incentivized, if I was him and I wasn’t being tested, I’d be pushing that vector hard.”
Responding to Rogan’s question, Derek provided a few potential examples including human growth hormone, peptides, and androgens to reinforce bone mineral density that could potentially be part of McGregor’s new muscle-building and recovery regimen.
While USADA has gone a long way to level the playing field, the program is still restricted by its own budget. Unable to do testing on all fighters on a consistent basis throughout the course of their UFC career leaves a fairly big opening for manipulation by a fighter determined to cheat the system and gain an unfair advantage.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a lack of comprehensiveness in the USADA tests, but they’re not bulletproof,” Rogan concluded.
