Conor McGregor is the Most Tested Athlete in Combat Sports
Conor McGregor is no stranger to breaking records. He holds way more than a handful in the UFC, including the biggest gate, largest purse and being the first simultaneous two-division champion just to name a few. It looks like those records just keep on coming, but in the current climate of the UFC, this one should mean a lot. According to the USADA data compiled by Dimspace on Twitter, McGregor is the most tested athlete in combat sports and it’s not that close. McGregor has been tested by USADA a total of 36 times.
“I’m happy to be tested. The boy [Nate Diaz] is not far along — they f-cking all are on steroids. So it is f-cked up. The co-main and main at 200. That’s messed up to me. I don’t know. It’s his teammates that have been caught before. I just hope that he’s being tested as much as I’m being tested. I am happy to be tested. I never kick up a fuss. I never do [a Jose] Aldo and throw the piss over my shoulder and ring the police like he done in Brazil. I welcome them in, I do the test and on they go and then that’s it. It’s a good thing for the sport, that’s all I know.” — Conor McGregor said on the UFC 202 conference call.
Conor McGregor has been vocal about PED use in the UFC, even more so after Nate Diaz accused him of being on steroids during the build-up to their first fight at UFC 196. It’s worth mentioning that 11 of these USADA tests are not from UFC fights, but from his one boxing match with Floyd Mayweather alone. For you sticklers out there, if you subtract the boxing tests from his total and only count UFC tests, then Holly Holm would actually be the most tested athlete in the UFC at 31 tests.
Call McGregor everything under the sun. Regardless of what you think of his personality or the recent antics that he’s becoming infamous for, you at least have to call him a clean athlete. Not only in one sport, but two sports, which is something to be proud of with all the anti-doping violations lately.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 12/2/2017
