Since it was first announced last year, the first-ever professional sporting event at the U.S. capitol has been both hotly anticipated and highly controversial. Much has been written, and much will continue to be written, about the one-of-a-kind event. Call it sportswashing, call it spectacle, call it entertainment on the government dime (though the UFC is footing the bill, to a reported cost of $60 million).

None of that will matter to fight fans come Sunday, nor will it matter to the fighters themselves. Somehow, despite the very obvious political overtones, the show still represents the pinnacle of MMA. Yes, Dana White is buddy-buddy with American President Donald Trump, the only reason the show is happening (on his birthday, no less). But it’s not as if PowerSlap or the XFL or WWE wrestling is being held on the White House lawn.

If the UFC wasn’t the juggernaut it is, if it didn’t capture the interest of the sporting world the way it has over the past decade plus, the octagon simply wouldn’t be sitting in front of America’s most famous building.

Ahead of UFC Freedom 250, a rare Sunday show, the stars of the card will appear at one final press conference. That arrives Friday; catch the likes of Ilia Topuria, Justin Gaethje, Alex Pereira, Ciryl Gane and more above. Expected start time is 8:15PM ET, 5:15PM PT.

The post UFC Freedom 250 Pre-Fight Press Conference Live Stream appeared first on Cageside Press.

How special is Alex Pereira?

Well, you are seeing history in the making. To put it in only a few words, you are seeing a fighter in “Poatan” who has not needed many fights or relatively even as much cage time as other fighters to put himself on the cusp of history to do what no UFC fighter has done before.

Poatan power hits DIFFERENT 😮‍💨@AlexPereiraUFC is ready to earn his belt back on Saturday night 🏆

[ #UFC320 | LIVE 10pmET on @ESPN PPV ] pic.twitter.com/agjI2VtM2e

— UFC (@ufc) October 2, 2025

The former kickboxing champion was only 3-1 when he was signed to the UFC back in 2021. It would be an understatement to say what came next has been considered a generational run. Four fights later, which took him just a single year to record by the way, he was already booked for his first UFC title fight against his former Glory rival and the reigning superstar middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. He was losing the bout, until he wasn’t. In the fifth round stopped Adesanya with an all-time epic rally to win UFC gold for the first time.

He would lose the title in the rematch, but reinvented himself shortly thereafter as a light-heavyweight and a year after winning his first belt he’d go on to win his second. Since then he’s won five title fights, briefly dropping the belt before taking it back decisively in the rematch to Magomed Ankalaev last year. Along the way he’s defeated six past, current, or future UFC champions. Oftentimes he has not even needed past the second round to dispatch his elite foes.

It’s a run that has brought him to the cusp of history. He reportedly went to the UFC office and pushed for a fight with heavyweight champion Jon Jones the night before he fought to reclaim his light heavyweight championship back in October. While it is not Jones he will be facing, Pereira is all the same challenging for the interim heavyweight title on Sunday, making him the first to compete for and potentially win UFC gold of any kind in three different weight classes. His career is already guaranteed to see him make it into the Hall of Fame, but what remains to be seen is if he will add more history to his resume before then.

Ciryl Gane’s journey looked rather similar once upon a time. “Bon Gamin” was only 3-0 when he was brought into the UFC in 2019 and rattled off seven straight wins en route to becoming the interim heavyweight champion two years later. Undefeated and being pushed as the next generation of MMA heavyweight, Gane would come up short against Francis Ngannou – who had previously been coached by Gane’s coach Fernand Lopez – in an attempt to unify the titles.

Put on a masterclass to become France's first champ 🇫🇷@Ciryl_Gane faces Alex Pereira for the interim heavyweight title at #UFCWhiteHouse on Sunday June 14!

[ Title fights presented by @Cryptocom ] pic.twitter.com/j62Xeai2xD

— UFC (@ufc) May 23, 2026

He would get back in the win-column before his second undisputed UFC title opportunity materialized, this time against the returning legend Jon Jones who was making his debut at heavyweight. That bid would be unsuccessful as well, with Gane making a crucial error that led to him being submitted in the first round.

Since then, Gane’s trajectory has not been a straight line. A bounce back win over Serghei Spivac led to a rematch with former foe Alexander Volkov in which Gane suffered an injured ankle and fans were divided when he was awarded a split-decision victory. That said, he was granted another shot at undisputed gold last October. This time against Tom Aspinall.

Brief as it was, the fight was notable for seeing Gane getting the better of the champion for the better part of the first round. Unfortunately, a severe eye-poke inflicted by Gane led to a No Contest in the match and Aspinall remains out of action as he rehabilitates the injury. Regardless of whether it seemed Gane would go on to finally win the belt that night, the fact remains that it was once more a title fight in which Gane left without UFC gold.

This leads to Sunday’s critical contest. This will be Gane’s fifth fight with UFC gold on the line and poise him to have even more attention going into a potential rematch with Aspinall were he to win. He also gets the advantage, at least at a glance, that this is the first opponent in a title fight who may be undersized for the weight class. If there was a time for Gane to finally win a proverbial big one, it feels as if it’s now.

The post UFC White House: History on Deck in Pereira vs Gane appeared first on Cageside Press.

UFC President and CEO Dana White has suggested that, should he defeat Ciryl Gane and become interim heavyweight champion, Pereira would surpass even Jon Jones to become MMA’s GOAT. Of course, a win would mean Pereira would claim a title in a third weight class, a feat never before accomplished in the UFC. And while an interim belt wouldn’t leave Pereira as an undisputed champion, it would be a considerable feat in itself.

Former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier doesn’t necessarily agree. And he’s been asked the question by “Poatan” himself, apparently.

“Alex just asked me that directly, and he’s big now, so that’s a hard question to answer when he’s that big. And I actually told him no,” Cormier revealed on Wednesday, appearing at the UFC Freedom 250 media day with outlets including Cageside Press. “I told him I don’t think he’d be the greatest just yet. I think that he would need to defend the championship at heavyweight. He’s defended three times at light heavyweight – is it three times he’s defended? Two or three times?”

Pereira, who did not defend his middleweight title, defended his 205lb belt three times before losing it to Magomed Ankalaev. He later won the belt back in a rematch before vacating the title to facilitate his move to heavyweight.

“He’s fought for that title a lot of times, and I think that he just needs more work,” continued Cormier, who allowed that “I do believe that being a three-division champion is one of the greatest accomplishments ever. But to put him over Georges St-Pierre or Khabib Nurmagomedov, I don’t think quite yet.”

As for his old rival “Bones,” DC added “Jon Jones, you guys know how I feel about that.”

Cormier’s broadcaster partner, play-by-play man Jon Anik, was quick to give DC himself credit in the GOAT debate when he made his own media day appearance this week.

“You know it’s interesting. My broadcast partner Daniel Cormier probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves in terms of his relative all-time greatness,” started Anik. “It’s hard to put this into context. I feel like greatness should be judged on championship title defenses, and if they hung a banner in Albuquerque, New Mexico every time Jon Jones defended the title, they’d have 15 banners hanging up. So I think it terms of chasing down Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre or Demetrious Johnson, maybe there would still be work to be done. ‘Poatan’ did not defend the middleweight title. But my gosh, Mt. Rushmore’s getting awfully crowded.”

“I just acknowledge a guy like DC who was a simultaneous double champ, defended the belt in two divisions and isn’t necessarily mentioned in these conversations, and I think he should be. But ‘Poatan’ is certainly chasing rarified air that no one has breathed before, and we’ll see if he can check that box.”

Anik later spoke to Cageside Press about the length of UFC cards, particularly Fight Night events. In the past, it has been suggested some could be a little shorter. Of course, the UFC has commitments to fighters under contract, but Anik did have a number of fights per card in mind that he feels is ideal, coming at it from a broadcaster’s point of view.

“Not trying to get in trouble up here; I would say 10 or 11 fights is probably in the wheelhouse. My former broadcast partner Brian Stann would always say to me ‘this is an open book test, you might as well show up with some notes.’ And if this fight card got delayed for five hours, we could obviously make good use of that time.”

“I think part of the reason I’m so consumed by the preparation is that you can always do more. So if I’m assigned 28 athletes, it’s pretty daunting. And if you’re giving each of those guys a couple hours, just do the math, it’s a lot of hours,” stated Anik. “So this is more manageable, just focusing on 14 athletes. We were able to do fighter meetings today with all 14 athletes, we never sit down with all 25 athletes.”

“So more management from that perspective, but yeah I think 10 or 11 would probably be the wheelhouse,” Anik noted. Of course when the UFC calls his number, Jon Anik always shows up, he added. No matter how many fights are on the card.

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearances by Daniel Cormier and Jon Anik above.

The post UFC Broadcasters Anik, DC Give Their Take on Pereira’s GOAT Status appeared first on Cageside Press.

This fight is a chance to prove he belongs in the conversation with the UFC’s ranked middleweights. He’s already put together some impressive performances inside the Octagon, and he believes a win over Nickal on one of the biggest stages in the sport would be impossible to ignore.

“Definitely didn’t expect to be on the card. I said before I didn’t really think I deserve to be on the card just base off the caliber of fighters that are on it,” Daukaus told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.

“If you take a look at it, kind of take a step back, and look from the outside, my story and stuff like that, I think it all comes together. Me being on this card, kind of shining on this card, you couldn’t have written it any better to have a story like this.”

Daukaus (17-4) knows that trying to predict how the UFC rewards momentum can be a frustrating ordeal, especially after putting together an impressive run inside the Octagon.

A statement victory over a high profile opponent like Nickal would make it impossible for the promotion to ignore and could finally earn him a place among the ranked middleweights.

“Unpredictable with the UFC as far as where you projected and whatnot after good wins. After two finishes in the UFC, obviously, you would think that there would be a potential number next to your name, but I think a fight like this against Bo would kind of do that as well,” he said.

“A good performance against him, a good finish on him, would definitely put me with number next to my name.”

Daukaus sees the unique dynamic of competing against one of Penn State wrestling’s most recognizable names, understanding that Nickal’s accomplishments competing for Penn State have earned him a loyal following throughout Pennsylvania.

Still, the middleweight contender made it clear that fan allegiances won’t influence his mindset, as his focus remains squarely on delivering the performance he believes will earn him the biggest win of his career.

“The wrestling community at Penn State is huge. They have a huge like backing, a very good support which is good to see. I know the die hards wrestling fans are always on his side, which is fine,” he said.

“Doesn’t really matter to me. I’m just going to go out there to perform. I feel like whoever wins they’re going to support no matter what, but I’m getting my hand raised Sunday night.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Kyle Daukaus above. He faces Bo Nickal at UFC White House on Sunday night.

The post Kyle Daukaus: ‘I’m Getting My Hand Raised Sunday Night’ appeared first on Cageside Press.

“Yeah huge moments, big cards. Definitely this is kind of what I envisioned coming up,” O’Malley told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.

“The White House card’s epic. I’m not the main event, I’m not the headliner, I’m honored to be on it. Super excited to be on it.”

O’Malley (19-3) said that a matchup with Zahabi had actually been on the table before, but circumstances within the bantamweight division repeatedly sent him in different directions.

While other names such as Song Yadong and Petr Yan were also discussed, the former champion said he’s ultimately good with how things unfolded and sees Zahabi as an opponent who’ll bring a good fight.

“After the second Merab (Dvalishvili) fight, Aiemann called me out, I said yes. UFC said, ‘you’re fighting Song’. So I was like alright,” he said.

“Then this comes around. I wanted to fight Petr. They said Aiemann. I like the matchup.”

O’Malley said his preparation for Zahabi has centered around preparing for a relentless pressure attack from the Canadian. Drawing comparisons to some of the toughest fighters he has faced, the former bantamweight champion anticipates Zahabi continuing to move forward even under heavy fire, though he isn’t convinced he’ll be able to withstand the same punishment for long.

“Turn 15-minute timer on and punch the punching bag for 15 minutes. Chito’s (Vera) as durable as it comes. You guys saw what I did to Chito. It could be that Kris Mountinho kind of style. Come forward, get hit, but come forward,” he said.

“It’s kind of what I’m expecting out of him. Except I don’t think he’s going to be able to take the shots.”

O’Malley will be looking for another shot at UFC gold with a win over Zahabi, but he stopped short of assuming that he’d be the next 135er to fight for the title.

With the bantamweight division continuing to evolve around him, the former champion said he’s remaining flexible and focused on handling the task directly in front of him before worrying about what comes next.

“My next fight will probably be for the title,” O’Malley said.

“I don’t know if the next title fight will involve me in it. Seems like Petr-Merab’s kind of the way it’s leaning, but whether I wait or take another fight, I don’t know. It’s so hard to predict how these fights play out. Taking it one fight at a time.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Sean O’Malley above. He faces Aiemann Zahabi at UFC White House on Sunday night.

The post Sean O’Malley: ‘My Next Fight Will Probably Be for the Title’ appeared first on Cageside Press.

Muay Thai and Kickboxing action made up the entirety of ONE Championship’s latest card, with strawweights Maisangkum Sor Yingcharoenkarnchang and Petnamkhong Sor Maneekhot headlining the show in a Muay Thai contest.

As always, a $100,000 U.S. ONE Championship contract was on the line for one of the night’s unsigned winners.

Where to Watch ONE Friday Fights 158

ONE Friday Fights 158 takes place on Friday, June 12, 2026 at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Inner Circle fights are available via the ONE Championship website, while the main card streams live on Youtube for western fight fans. Full results from the event can be found below; the action gets underway at 7:30AM ET, 4:30AM PT.

ONE Friday Fights 158 Results

Petnamkhong Sor Maneekhot def. Maisangkum Sor Yingcharoenkarnchang via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Mamuka Usubyan defeats Enzo Kartoum via unanimous decision – Kickboxing
Kyaw Swar Win defeats Slatan Jitmuangnon via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Petphupa Aekpujean defeats Wuttidet Torfunfarm via knockout at 2:17 of round two – Muay Thai
YodUdon K Tongtalingchan defeats Tepkamin ThanapolResort via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Petsuphan Lookmuangpetch defeats Rawee Puanpratuphee via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Ricardo “El Mercenario” Sanchez defeats Yanis Ben Alaya via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Ployjan “Damdong” Sitnayokdam defeats Sheila “La Chinita” Barrios via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Kazuteru Yamazaki defeats Chen Jiayi via majority decision via unanimous decision – Kickboxing

The Inner Circle

Tomyamkoong Bhumjaithai defeats Anar “Atilla” Mammadov via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Rambong Sor Therapat defeats Sornsueknoi FA Group via split decision – Muay Thai
Titus Proctor defeats “The Phenom” Tun Min Aung via unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Sora Tanazawa defeats Adham Ruziev via split decision – Kickboxing

The post ONE Friday Fights 158 & The Inner Circle 18 Live Stream and Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

“Iron” Mike is also looking to bounce back from a trio of losses, to Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and Paddy Pimblett, in his fight against Mauricio Ruffy. That last one appears to have gnawed at Chandler (23-10) more than most.

“I’m very disappointed in my performance in my last fight. And I think sometimes as a fighter, you need those to really look at your blind spots, to really look at the areas where you need to improve,” Chandler told media outlets including Cageside Press during the White House card’s media day on Wednesday. “Areas where maybe you feel like you need to improve, where you feel like you need to tweak your training, tweak your mindset, but you’ve just been firing on all cylinders going 100 miles an hour ahead and just keep doing the same of what you’ve been doing.”

“Gave me an opportunity to kind of step back, recalibrate, kind of coil the spring so to speak for the greatest platform and the greatest opportunity of my life. And in my opinion, a great opponent, the perfect opponent to fight on the White House lawn.”

Over the past few years, Chandler has circled a fight with Conor McGregor, one that was briefly booked at UFC 303 only for the Irish star to pull out. The lightweight spent a lot of time on the sidelines waiting for the opportunity that never came, leading to a lot of talk among fans and pundits. Yet in a way, his loyalty to the fight, and the UFC itself, appears to have paid off. After all, he might be mired in a slump, but he’s still fighting at the White House.

That has to be somewhat vindicating, and have the monkey off his back so to speak.

“Yeah a little bit,” Chandler agreed, speaking to Cageside Press. “You’ve got certain fighters [not] on the card who after the fact, after they were not put on this card, say ‘well I didn’t want to fight on the card anyway.'”

“There’s no way in the world that somebody doesn’t want to fight on this fight card. When you talk about eyeballs, when you talk about platform, when you talk about reach, when you talk about the greatest moment of opportunity to showcase your skills to the world. So I always looked at it that way, at that’s me not even putting my blue-blooded American hat on.”

Of course, Chandler is a “very proud American” who wanted to represent the country, and the promotion, on the biggest stage possible, he noted. That’s been the case all along, even when he was chasing the McGregor fight.

“There was a lot of chatter. These last couple of years have been very interesting, but I think I’m a better man because of it, and because I’m a better man because of it, I’m a better husband and father because of it,” Chandler explained. “Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes the things that you are chasing doesn’t work out. Sometimes you hitch your dream to a shooting star, and it just doesn’t work out.”

Throughout the process, Michael Chandler “did a lot of soul searching, and there were a lot of decisions that needed to be made, a lot of pieces needed to be put into place. But as you saw, whenever Conor pulled out of that fight, it was like, recalibrate for a month, lets see what happens, and I threw myself into the fire, Madison Square Garden, co-main event against one of the most dangerous guys on the planet, Charles Oliveira.”

“I stole the show that night even in a loss, and then got right back on the horse probably a little too soon, going into that Paddy fight, coming off an injury and stuff that never becomes public, that you guys never find out about. But here we are. I’ve had a year to lick my wounds and look myself in the mirror and know that I can be better. And I’m going to be better, and I have been better over the last year, and I’m going to show that on fight night.”

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearance by Michael Chandler above.

The post Michael Chandler Reacts to Landing on White House Card After Hitching Dream to McGregor appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I hope so. I hope so. I hope he’s going to come out very aggressive,” Gaethje (27-5) told media outlets including Cageside Press during media day on Wednesday.

Gaethje isn’t exactly known for his trash talk, and added that “I’m definitely not trying to be something I’m not. Most of the time I’m just being a funny guy. I think I’m a pretty funny guy.”

The clash between the two seems to stem from Gaethje making comments saying he understood why Topuria’s wife divorced the Georgian fighter. But he noted on Wednesday that those comments were in jest. “When something’s in text, it’s very, very hard to understand the context of things, rather than when you see a video.”

The video of Gaethje’s comments has never surfaced, and he insisted that “I was joking. I thought it was funny.”

Asked where Topuria, who has defeated Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski, and Charles Oliveira in his last three fights, ranks, Gaethje was complimentary.

“He’s up there. His last three fights have been spectacular. He is one of the best in the world. He is the best in the world right now. He’s considered the best in the world, top two, he’s number two on the pound-for-pound list, and yeah, this is a huge task for me. Huge underdog. And I love the challenge.”

Of course, this fight comes on the White House lawn. Gaethje is no stranger to big stages, from Abu Dhabi to New York City. Yet he tries not to build things up too much.

“I use it for lessons, for lessons to not repeat. Oliveira was at home, home field advantage in Arizona. I had already failed fighting for the belt once, my second chance, I wanted it so bad and the more you want something, the worse you do sometimes. You can’t make it bigger than what it is.”

One thing to factor in, fighting on the White House lawn, is the weather, however.

“The humidity is the only thing that’s going to be a factor. We’re either going to be sweatier, or hotter.” Gaethje has hit the saunas prior to working out to prepare for that. “Really, really peaked my body temperature so I have to perform in that atmosphere.”

Topuria, he believes, may have also backed himself into a corner.

“The way he’s talked about me and the way he’s diminished my abilities really puts him into a corner where he has to have a spectacular performance or else he’s going to—  even if he wins and has a tough fight, he’s going to have a tough fight against a guy that he says does not belong in the cage with him.”

That puts the pressure on Topuria, Gaethje believes, but “The Highlight” went on to add that “this life comes with pressure.”

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearance by Justin Gaethje above. Gaethje faces Ilia Topuria in a lightweight title unification bout this Sunday, June 14 at the White House in Washington, D.C.

The post UFC Freedom 250’s Justin Gaethje: Topuria Has Put Himself in a Corner appeared first on Cageside Press.

That leg break, shades of Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, has left McGregor, now 37, on the sidelines for years. Along the way, he “retired” and removed himself from the testing pool; his planned return saw the UFC’s relationship with then-drug testing partner USADA decline rapidly after the two sides butted heads over an exemption from the normally required six months of drug testing for fighters coming back from retirement.

While many in the MMA space believed that McGregor retired and exited USADA’s drug testing pool specifically to utilize medications that would otherwise be banned for active fighters, the NYT report is the first to cite multiple sources confirming it, if they are to be believed. They also claim this was an attempt to “evade” anti-doping officials.

Per the New York Times story, published Thursday, their investigation “reveals that he [Conor McGregor] did take powerful, banned drugs, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.” They also point to Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who oversaw McGregor’s surgery in 2021, as supporting McGregor’s use of substances that would have been banned under the promotion’s Anti-Doping Policy (ADP), at the time overseen by USADA.

ElAttrache supported McGregor receiving a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE), which allowed athletes in the USADA program to use substances that would otherwise be banned from competition, with medical oversight. ElAttrache, who is the head physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Rams, told the Times that he did not “prescribe hormone or steroid treatment,” but rather wrote a letter in support of the TUE, after McGregor had seen another specialist who was also in favor of it.

Ultimately, McGregor’s TUE was denied, and he would go on to retire and remove himself from USADA’s testing pool as a result. During the years that followed, he filmed a role in the Road House remake alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, and was for a time announced as returning to action against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in 2024, after the pair coached opposite one another via The Ultimate Fighter 31. He later withdrew from the fight due to a broken toe.

Much of the details from the Times report were already publicly known prior to that, and pertain to the period between McGregor’s catastrophic 2021 injury and UFC 303.

Conor McGregor’s potential return to action became a sticking point in the relationship between USADA and the UFC, one that saw their partnership quickly sour, and come to an end however. That started as early as 2022, when McGregor exited USADA’s testing pool. In a statement issued to multiple media outlets, the drug testing org noted that “In October 2022, the UFC confirmed that McGregor is not in the USADA testing pool and we can confirm that report.”

As first reported by Cageside Press in November 2022, a potential McGregor return was out of their hands. While fighters returning from retirement typically receive six months of mandatory drug testing, that period can be waived, as it was in the case of both Brock Lesnar and Meisha Tate. Lesnar, infamously, later failed a drug test linked to his UFC 200 fight against Mark Hunt in 2016, leading to years of legal action between Hunt and the promotion.

“We do not make the decision to grant exemptions to the six-month return from retirement rule,” USADA officials told Cageside Press at the time. Rather, under the UFC’s Anti-Doping Policy and their agreement with the organization, it was the UFC that had final say.

The following March, before he had returned to the testing pool, USADA publicly cried foul about a possible exemption for McGregor. A statement on the situation in part read “While the rules permit the UFC to make an exception to the six-month rule in exceptional circumstances, when the strict application of the rule would be manifestly unfair to the athlete, our position, which we have made clear, is that Conor should be in the testing pool for the full six-month period.”

That led UFC President and CEO Dana White to publicly exclaim “who cares what USADA says,” perhaps the first sign that the relationship between the two bodies would fail.

McGregor did return to the testing pool, but by January 2024, the relationship between the UFC and USADA was kaput. Following a very public breakup, the promotion engaged Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) and Drug Free Sport to oversee their Anti-Doping Program.

At the time, USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart called the relationship between the two bodies “untenable.” A press release by USADA directly linked this to the McGregor situation. The UFC later issued a legal letter to USADA in response.

In response to the New York Times, Conor McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, did not confirm whether the fighter took banned substances while officially retired. “Even with surgery there was a real risk Conor might not walk again, a high likelihood he would face numerous lifelong side effects that would limit his mobility and serious doubts he would ever return to the octagon,” he was quoted as saying, adding that his client exited the testing pool “to focus fully on his recovery,” under the guidance of his medical team.

“It is an unfathomable breach of health and privacy protections that my client’s purported personal medical records would be disclosed,” Attar noted.

UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell told the Times that McGregor remained “in full compliance with the rules of our comprehensive drug program.”

According to the Times, ElAttrache, the doctor who oversaw McGregor’s 2021 surgery, said the “expert opinions” McGregor received from other physicians had showed “he could optimize his chance of solid union and healing of his fractures and decrease the chances that he would be left with incompletely healed fracture lines.” ElAttrache also noted that “banned drugs” are not the same as “illegal drugs,” and substances banned from competition often have legitimate medical purposes.

However, the Times cited “ten sports doctors” saying they were unaware of any athlete being granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption for substances to heal a broken bone. Only one was named in Thursday’s report, Dr. David Gerrard.

“I could not recall ever seeing a case or agreeing to any performance-enhancing drug to help heal a broken bone,” he said in regards to McGregor’s case.

According to the Times, McGregor did use banned substances while not under purview of USADA (or later, CSAD), citing unnamed sources. However, the fighter has never failed a drug test while in the testing program, and remains the UFC’s most actively tested fighter, with 12 drug test samples collected in 2026.

He previously received an 18-month suspension for whereabouts failures (not keeping CSAD up to date on his location to facilitate sample collection).

Conor McGregor returns to action in the main event of UFC 329 on July 11, 2026, where he faces Max Holloway for the second time.

The post NYT Report: McGregor Utilized Banned Substances to Heal Broken Leg While Out of Testing Pool appeared first on Cageside Press.

What began as another championship assignment has turned into something more personal for Topuria, who didn’t hold back when talking about comments made by Gaethje in the buildup to one of the most anticipated fights of the year.

“I was surprised a little bit. I wasn’t expecting him doing this kind of things, but, it is what it is,” Topuria told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.

“He said so many things after what he said. First of all he said that he wasn’t meaning about the divorce, then he said that he was joking. Whatever, I don’t care. Honestly, you can’t take anything personal from a idiot. He’s an idiot. ‘My father is my dad’. That’s all.”

For Topuria (17-0) the emotions surrounding this matchup have long gone beyond the usual competitive stakes, admitting that the line between business and personal feelings can sometimes blur. Even so, he stressed that throughout his career he has consistently found a way to channel those emotions into his performances without losing sight of his responsibilities as a professional athlete.

“Throughout my career I’ve always faced situations that turn into that. Turns into personal and professional, but I’ve always been able to manage those and turn those things into something. It is personal, but I’ve always been a professional,” he said.

“On the 14th of June you’re going to see that I’m going to be the professional that I am.”

Topuria said he isn’t expecting the version of Gaethje that fans have become accustomed to seeing throughout his UFC career, predicting a much more measured and strategic approach.

Rather than engaging in a firefight from the opening bell, Topuria believes Gaethje will attempt to conserve energy as he hopes to get into the championship rounds of their main event bout.

“I think that we are going to see a completely different Justin than we used to see. He’s going to show up in a completely different style. He’s going to try to wrestle, he’s going to try to come out with the hard kicks. With the strategy to go into the later rounds, and then be like fading and come out with the punches,” he said.

Topuria is confident in his ability to capitalize on Gaethje’s trademark aggression, suggesting that charging forward recklessly would play directly into his hands. At the same time, the undefeated champion questioned whether Gaethje would actually stick to that approach once the cage door closes, as he expects to dictate the terms of the fight.

“Listen, if he’s going to try to move forward, we all know what’s going to happen. I’m going to put him to sleep in the first two minutes,” he said.

“But I don’t know how much of what he’s saying is the truth. He’s going to have to deal with my strategy, I’m not going to have to deal with his.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Ilia Topuria above. He headlines UFC White House against Justin Gaethje on Sunday night.

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