{"id":196990,"date":"2025-10-08T07:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T07:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:40:09","slug":"mma-star-conor-mcgregor-suspended-for-18-months-for-missing-drug-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196990\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA star Conor McGregor suspended for 18 months for missing drug tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/db93827_ftp-import-images-1-wcwoxi3vobiu-5108536-01-06.jpg\" alt=\"Irish professional mixed martial artist Conor McGregor speaks from the White House briefing room podium in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2025. \"   width=\"664\" height=\"443\"\/>    Irish professional mixed martial artist Conor McGregor speaks from the White House briefing room podium in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2025.  JIM WATSON \/ AFP                        <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">Mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor has been issued an 18-month suspension after missing three drug tests in a 12-month period, anti-doping authorities said on Tuesday, October 7. Irishman McGregor, 37, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight and lightweight champion, has accepted the suspension, Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">CSAD said McGregor, one of UFC&#8217;s most bankable fighters, missed three tests on June 13, September 19 and September 20 last year in a breach of anti-doping &#8220;whereabouts&#8221; protocols. The agency said McGregor had fully cooperated with its investigation, accepted responsibility and provided information that helped explain why he had missed tests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">&#8220;Despite these mitigating factors, CSAD emphasizes that accurate whereabouts filings and the ability to conduct unannounced testing are essential to the success of the UFC anti-doping protocol,&#8221; the agency said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">The body reduced McGregor&#8217;s punishment from the standard period of two years to 18 months, backdating the suspension&#8217;s start date to September 2024. McGregor will be free to fight again by March 20 next year, potentially leaving him free to fight at a UFC event scheduled to take place on June 14 at the White House next year to coincide with US President Donald Trump&#8217;s birthday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">McGregor has repeatedly indicated he hopes to fight on the White House card, although UFC chief executive Dana White said on Saturday that no fighters have yet been signed. &#8220;We have not started negotiating any fights for the White House yet,&#8221; White said after an event in Las Vegas. &#8220;You can clearly see Conor is very fired up to fight on that card, but nothing is done yet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"author__detail\">  Le Monde with AFP  <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/en\/syndication\/\" class=\"reuse__content\" title=\"Reuse this content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reuse this content<\/a>      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish professional mixed martial artist Conor McGregor speaks from the White House briefing room podium in Washington, DC,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-196990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}