UFC Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell has put USADA on blast after a falling out.
Fight fans were shocked when USADA CEO Travis Tygart issued a statement announcing that, effective January 2024, the anti-doping agency would no longer be partnered with the UFC. Campbell accused Tygart of using his statement to throw Conor McGregor’s name in the mud and to insult the program that was built as a partner.
It’s been clear that higher ups at the UFC were none too pleased with Tygart’s statement. The promotion has threatened legal action against USADA.
Hunter Campbell Returns Fire On USADA
During a recent media scrum, Hunter Campbell scolded USADA for what he believed to have been a lack of commitment from the agency to get with the times.
“In the meeting we had, I think in May, I was more animated in that meeting because I’ve been told that we would have a technology solution for whereabouts for athletes going back almost two years now,” Campbell said. “Jeff has the number, but I think in 2021, I think USADA spent over a million dollars, maybe close to two million in, ‘Technology research,’ I don’t have an app that the athletes can use that update their whereabouts or give them to do so, right now, in the day and age we live in. You can track your kids everywhere they go, okay, you can track your spouse everywhere they go, I can’t track athletes? And we have guys in every country around the world. Like, these are simple solutions when you’re paying millions and millions and millions of dollars a year that you expect. And the answer isn’t, ‘Ah, we’re working on it.’ No, you’re working on it for three months, not two years. Figure it out.”
The UFC is moving on and has already partnered with a new drug testing group. Drug Free Sport International will be the new official anti-doping agency of the UFC.
