Dana White slams USADA CEO amid news of imminent split: ‘That was straight-Up scumbagism’
Dana White offered up some early comments on the recent reveal that the UFC would no longer be working with USADA come 2024.
United States Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the two parties would be parting ways after working together for the last eight years.
“Despite a positive and productive meeting about a contract renewal in May 2023, the UFC did an about-face and informed USADA on Monday, October 9, that it was going in a different direction,” Tygart wrote.
Reacting to Tygart’s comments during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Dana White called the “announcement” a dirty move before confirming that Jeff Novitzky, the current Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance for the UFC and Hunter Campbell, the promotion’s Executive Vice President.
“It was a dirty move by them… There was no announcement yesterday,” White said when asked about the situation with USADA. “That was straight-up ‘scumbagism’, so that will all be addressed today, not by me. I’ll let Novitzky and our lawyer Hunter Campbell handle that. The you know what is about to hit the fan.”
Dana White Confirms a Third-Party Organization Will Continue to Conduct Testing
White was unable to offer any specifics but confirmed that a third-party company is still expected to handle the UFC’s in and out-of-competition testing for athletes.
“We would still pay an independent company,” White confirmed. “It’s the best way to do it. We have a standard that we’ve set here, but a lot of people are not happy with USADA… Our deal is up at the end of the year and we’re working on going in a different direction, especially after the dirty scumbag move they pulled yesterday.”
Kicking off their partnership in 2015, USADA has conducted more than 27,000 tests on UFC athletes over the years.
