UFC lightweight contender Beneil Dariush has argued Conor McGregor is "cheating" as he continues working towards his octagon return later this year after a two-year absence.
The legendary former two-weight world champion broke his leg against Dustin Poirier in the pair's trilogy fight back in July of 2021, and has spent the last two years recovering from the gruesome injury. He has returned to training, and recently filmed a new season of The Ultimate Fighter that will tie in to the promotion of his comeback.
But one piece of the puzzle that is holding McGregor back is his lack of USADA testing for banned substances, which has seen him removed from their pool of athletes. It is required that fighters complete six months and two tests in the pool before they may return to competition, but the Irishman appears to believe he will be granted an exemption.
But McGregor's fellow lightweight contender Dariush reckons that he may still be taking banned substances, telling The Schmo : “I think Conor is cheating. In reality, if you want to fix your knee or you want to fix your leg and get certain growth hormones or whatever he’s doing, you can get a therapeutic exemption.
"You can speak to USADA and get a therapeutic exemption – but you can’t add extra stuff. Whatever you are putting in, you have to declare with them and get it figured out. This is 'BS', to be honest with you. The fact that they say, ‘Oh, while he’s doing this, he’s not getting tested right now because of his leg.’ No – you can still get tested.
"You just have to declare and say, ‘Hey, this was a therapeutic exemption.’ But that’s not the case [for McGregor]. He even put down ‘retirement’ [when filling out his forms], so he went into retirement, I guess. USADA recently said when you come out of retirement, you need six months and two clean tests. So this is garbage. But that’s the game.”
McGregor had expected to bypass the six month rule and said during a recent interview that he was planning to meet with the Anti-Doping agency to discuss his future. But they denied that such a meeting had been scheduled, and have insisted that he must undergo the six month process.
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A statement from USADA read: "While we meet with all athletes who enter or re-enter the testing pool, we do not currently have a meeting set with Conor and, as of today, we have not received notice of his coming out of retirement to compete. The UFC rules are clear that, in addition to two negative tests, an athlete must make themselves available for testing for six months before returning to competition.
"This is a fair way to ensure an athlete does not use the retirement status to gain an unfair advantage by using prohibited substances during the retirement period, which would enhance their performance unfairly if they ultimately decide to return to competition.
"While the rules permit the UFC to make an exception to the six-month rule in exceptional circumstances, when the strict application of the rule would be manifestly unfair to the athlete, our position, which we have made clear, is that Conor should be in the testing pool for the full six-month period."
McGregor has previously denied any use of illegal substances, and recently tweeted-and-deleted a message which read: “Over 70 clean tests. Never violated once. I will not be scapegoated by this garbage organisation. You are not the end-all and be-all in this equation USADA.”
