An MMA Thanksgiving: 2023 All-Turkey Team

‘Tis that time of year again, folks. While most Americans are sitting around stuffing their faces with turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes and mellowing out to a tryptophan overdose, the staff at Sherdog.com has compiled its All-Turkey Team for 2023. In the past, mixed martial arts has provided us with quite a few questionable characters, and this year has been no exception. The latest group of offenders—or members—delivered what might have been the most eclectic rap sheet yet.

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UFC vs. USADA

When two corporate entities elect to sever their working relationship, the resulting split is somewhat like a divorce and can take nearly as many forms. Sometimes, it is an amicable parting of the ways between two parties who have simply grown apart. Other times, one partner violates the commitments made when the contract or marriage was solemnized or even abuses the other partner to the point that they feel they have no option but to break things off. In a few cases, things become so adversarial that the legal system becomes involved, beyond merely rubber-stamping the final separation agreement.

Then there are the divorces, corporate or otherwise, where nobody knows what really happened behind closed doors other than the soon-to-be exes, who then air out their grievances in the public forum. What ensues is a clash of hyperbolic and mutually contradictory accounts that manages to make everyone involved look worse. Such was the split between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the United States Anti-Doping Agency, its official drug-testing partner since 2015, which became public in October after a tense spring and summer.

The root of that tension was the potential return of former two-division champion Conor McGregor after the Irish star coached opposite Michael Chandler on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show from May 30 to Aug. 15. McGregor’s expected comeback fight against Chandler, originally rumored to take place in the fall, was pushed back repeatedly as the “Notorious” delayed entering the USADA testing pool to begin the required six-month period before he could be cleared to compete.

McGregor finally entered the testing pool in September, opening the door for him to fight as soon as March 2024. It was not to be, however—at least, not under the aegis of USADA.

Perhaps surprisingly, considering the UFC’s proclivity for scorched-earth rhetoric, it was USADA that fired the first overt shot. The organization’s CEO, Travis Tygart, released a written statement on Oct. 12, announcing that the two organizations would end their partnership, effective Jan. 1, 2024. Tygart went on to place the blame squarely on the UFC, accusing the promotion of pressuring USADA to bend the six-month testing requirement for McGregor and calling the relationship “untenable” in the wake of longtime color commentator Joe Rogan urging the UFC to cut ties with USADA. True or not, as an attempt to get out ahead of the story and perhaps score a few PR points, it was a savvy move, considering that the last time USADA made an exception for a major star, Brock Lesnar at UFC 200 in 2016, Lesnar won in dominant fashion, only to melt the testing equipment with his urine at his post-fight drug screening. It was a significant black eye for the UFC, and the subsequent lawsuit by Lesnar’s opponent, Mark Hunt, was a persistent annoyance until this September, when a court finally ruled in the promotion’s favor.

Never one to take that kind of public criticism lying down, the UFC promptly responded with a salvo of vitriolic replies. First, UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell flatly denied Tygart’s account of the negotiations, claiming the UFC had been looking for a new drug-testing partner all year and accusing USADA of using McGregor as a scapegoat for the breakdown of the relationship. Campbell then called on USADA to withdraw the Oct. 12 statement, with the rather optimistic added demand that Tygart apologize.

UFC CEO Dana White—of course—was the next to enter the fray. With his customary grace, White referred to Tygart as a “scumbag” who “went nuts,” while reiterating Campbell’s denial that the UFC had asked for any special treatment for McGregor. Amid the invective, White made one fairly reasonable point: If USADA was serious about expanding into other sports, the kind of public shouting match that had begun with Tygart’s press release was about the worst way imaginable to go about it.

In the ensuing weeks, the furor quieted. The UFC quickly announced that Drug Free Sport International would take over as its independent testing partner in 2024; USADA has yet to announce any major moves; and McGregor still does not have a fight booked. The corporate equivalent of a divorce with plenty of flying pots and pans was over, and the only lasting damage is to the perception that this sport has any grown-ups in positions of power.

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