Conor McGregor's defense of his performance-enhancing drug use has left out a key detail, sources say: He allegedly kept taking them even after his shattered leg had healed. Two people familiar with the situation told the New York Times that McGregor used anabolic steroids and human growth hormone during his more than two-year break from the UFC's drug-testing pool—and stayed on them because he liked the energy boost. Anti-doping experts say that combo can confer an athletic edge long after use stops.
McGregor, 37, returns to the Octagon on Saturday for the first time since his 2021 injury. The UFC says he has since passed 32 drug tests, and his manager insists he has fully complied with the promotion's rules. The claims also raise legal questions, however. Federal law sharply limits when doctors can prescribe human growth hormone, and healing a broken leg isn't on the list.
One specialist reportedly wrote HGH and steroid prescriptions for McGregor after prominent sports surgeon Neal ElAttrache, the head doctor for the LA Dodgers and Rams, recommended he see bone-healing experts; ElAttrache backed McGregor's failed bid for a therapeutic-use exemption from the US Anti-Doping Agency. A Scottish anti-doping scholar calls the situation "a nightmare" for fair play, arguing that McGregor's opponent may now be facing someone who operated "by a different set of rules."
In other news, McGregor also admits he started drinking too much after he'd launched his own whiskey brand, per SB Nation. "I'd leave my property with two bottles under my arm, and that was it," he said at a recent presser. "I was trapped and caught, and it is what it is." As his weekend match against Max Holloway nears, McGregor also continues to profess his innocence following a civil suit that ended with him being found liable for a 2018 sexual assault in Ireland. "I'm an innocent man," he said at the news conference, per SB Nation. "I know the truth. And I know that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord."
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