Conor McGregor, the most recognizable Ultimate Fighting Championship star, has described in detail for the first time what led him to use banned drugs after he broke his leg in gruesome fashion during a televised fight in 2021.
The comments, the most extensive he has made on the matter, confirmed parts of a New York Times story last week that detailed how he had avoided drug testing and used banned powerful performance-enhancing drugs to help him recover from the injury.
McGregor made the comments on Tuesday in a televised interview on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” as he promoted his first fight in five years, which is scheduled to take place next month in Las Vegas. He defended his decision to take the substances the doctors had given him, saying that while he did not know what the substances were, he had no choice but to take extraordinary measures to ensure that he walked again.
“If you’re going to ask what was I on, I don’t even know, don’t know, I don’t want to know,” McGregor said. “All I want to know,” he said, is what it would take for him “to be able to play with my children in a normal capacity again.”
The Times reported last Thursday about a series of events that unfolded after McGregor broke his leg that sports doctors, antidoping experts, sports officials and trauma surgeons said was extremely unusual. The episode raised questions about the ethics of using banned substances on an athlete even for such a serious injury.
After McGregor was operated on, The Times reported, the doctor who oversaw the surgery, Neal ElAttrache, said he was concerned the leg would not heal properly. Dr. ElAttrache referred McGregor to doctors who specialized in bone healing who were also able to prescribe banned drugs.
While Dr. ElAttrache — one of the most celebrated physicians in sports and the team doctor for the championship-winning Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Rams — said he played no role in prescribing thedrugs, he endorsed McGregor’s using them. Dr. ElAttrache said he then wrote a letter supporting McGregor that would have allowed him to use the drugs without facing a suspension.
Antidoping officials thought that McGregor — with the imprimatur of Dr. ElAttrache — was trying to exploit a loophole to use banned drugs, and the exemption was never granted. McGregor took himself out of the U.F.C.’s drug testing pool instead, meaning that he was no longer subject to urine or blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs and would face no penalty for using them.
While outside the testing pool, he used the banned drugs, The Times reported.
In the interview on Tuesday, McGregor said that it was “shocking, shocking” that The Times would publicly reveal “a man’s private medical” records.
He said that the injury he had suffered was “the most devastating injury that you’d see in combat sport.”
“You have an injury like that, you’re not going to walk again. The objective should be to get that athlete, that fighter, who’s given his life, his limb, his livelihood, for the entertainment of the people and for the profit of the company, it should be: Get this man back on his feet,” McGregor said.
He acknowledged that he had run into problems with the United States Anti-Doping Agency after the injury in terms of the treatment he wanted to follow.
“I find that strange, and I find that wrong,” McGregor said.
Antidoping experts said in interviews with The Times that they knew of no example in their careers of an athlete needing banned and powerful performance-enhancing drugs to heal a broken leg.
In response to the story, the U.F.C. has defended McGregor and its drug testing program. Major League Baseball has signaled that it plans to question Dr. ElAttrache, who along with treating the Dodgers has operated on a slew of the game’s superstars, like Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper. The N.F.L. has declined to answer questions about Dr. ElAttrache.
Shortly before McGregor’s interview aired on Tuesday, the U.F.C. put out a lengthy statement about him.
“In 2021, Conor McGregor sustained a potentially career-ending injury and sought medical guidance from leading orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who advised the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation protocol,” the U.F.C. said. “As a result, McGregor did not compete for five years and maintained proper communication with our team throughout, remaining in full compliance with the rules of our comprehensive drug program.”
The U.F.C. also addressed its split with the United States Anti-Doping Agency, saying it was unrelated to treatment of McGregor’s injury.
“Any suggestion that U.F.C.’s decision to end its partnership with USADA was related to Conor McGregor is categorically false,” the U.F.C. said. “Internal communications and documentation clearly show that discussions regarding a transition away from USADA began months before any conversations involving McGregor.”
A spokeswoman for USADA did not return an email message seeking comment.
Matthew Cullen contributed reporting.
www.nytimes.com