Conor McGregor is back in the spotlight days before his first fight in five years, and not because of the bout itself. A New York Times report says he continued using banned performance-enhancing drugs after the broken leg he suffered against Dustin Poirier in July 2021 had healed.
The timing matters because McGregor is scheduled to fight Max Holloway this Saturday at UFC 329, putting an old injury and a new allegation in the same frame. The report, by Michael S. Schmidt, says McGregor sought a therapeutic use exemption after the break so he could use performance-enhancing drugs in recovery without being penalized by USADA, but the request was not granted.
That set off a stretch in which McGregor withdrew from the antidoping program and was not tested for two years. Schmidt reported that he used anabolic steroids and human growth hormone throughout that period, and that one person said U.F.C. officials were told McGregor stayed on the drugs because he liked how they made him feel and the energy they gave him. The report also says many people noticed physical changes in him during that time.
The UFC pushed back with a different account. It told that McGregor had sustained a potentially career-ending injury and sought medical guidance, which pointed him toward the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation protocol. The company also said he did not compete for five years and has been tested 22 times over the last two years, including 15 tests in 2026.
But the numbers do not fully settle the matter. The UFC said all 32 samples he provided over that period were negative, while the report says he re-entered the UFC’s testing pool in October 2023 and was flagged three times when testers could not locate him. That leaves a blunt gap at the center of the story: the public record now includes a major new allegation about what McGregor was using during recovery, but no explanation of which drugs he allegedly took or why those three tests could not be completed.
For McGregor, the fight in Las Vegas now arrives with more baggage than a simple comeback. The injury is old, the recovery is over, and the report has shifted the focus from whether he can return to whether the road back was built on rules that were never meant to bend this far.
