Conor McGregor - BKFC 82

Conor McGregor has accepted an 18-month suspension from UFC anti-doping program Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) for three whereabouts failures that occurred in mid-to-late 2024.

CSAD announced the suspension Tuesday, 13 months after the last of the three failures occurred. McGregor will be eligible to compete March 20, 2026 – three months before the White House card he's been angling to compete on.

The failures took place June 13, Sept. 19, and Sept. 20, 2024. June 13 was the same day UFC CEO Dana White announced McGregor's scheduled UFC 303 bout vs. Michael Chandler was canceled.

UFC athletes are required to make their whereabouts known so that testing agents can locate them for random, unannounced drug tests. McGregor, according to CSAD, did not do that.

"Although McGregor failed to make himself available for testing on those dates, CSAD noted that he was recovering from an injury and was not preparing for an upcoming fight at the time of the three missed tests," CSAD wrote in a statement Tuesday. "McGregor fully cooperated with CSAD’s investigation, accepted responsibility, and provided detailed information that CSAD determined contributed to the missed tests.

"... Taking McGregor’s cooperation and circumstances into account, CSAD reduced the standard 24-month sanction for three whereabouts failures by six months."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC suspends Conor McGregor for 18 months citing anti-doping whereabouts failure

Reporting by Nolan King, MMA Junkie / MMA Junkie

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