Conor McGregor’s longtime management pushed back hard on ’ allegations just days before UFC 329, with Audie Attar saying the fighter had been tested about 15 times this year and calling the report a hit job. McGregor is due to face Max Holloway in the UFC 329 main event on Saturday, a return that has put the Irish fighter back under a microscope after years away from competition.
had accused McGregor of using anabolic steroids and Human Growth Hormone during his recovery from the leg injury he suffered against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. Attar said McGregor followed every testing procedure and rejected the claim that anything improper happened, saying, “I think it’s a guy trying to make something out of nothing.”
That response landed in the middle of a story built around timing as much as substance. McGregor had not fought since the injury at UFC 264, and the allegations centered on his recovery after surgery on tibia and fibula fractures. The paper said there was no direct evidence of McGregor using steroids or other banned substances leading up to UFC 329, even as it described him as the most tested fighter on the current UFC roster in 2026.
The friction in the case is simple and hard to ignore: Attar says McGregor has been tested about 15 times this year, while the reporting accuses him of using banned drugs during recovery and again in a follow-up report published just hours later, after the injuries were said to have healed. Attar called that timing no accident, saying, “Either a hit job on us, or on the UFC,” and adding that the claims were being raised “right before the White House event, and right before the McGregor return.”
For now, the dispute does not change the calendar. McGregor is still scheduled to fight Holloway on Saturday, and the question hanging over UFC 329 is not whether the allegations exist, but whether they alter the public’s view of a return that was already years in the making.
