Conor McGregor is serving a suspension, but it won’t stop his planned UFC return.
The former two-division UFC champion has emphatically pledged to make his highly anticipated return to the Octagon after a hiatus of more than four years, setting his sights on the MMA promotion’s special White House event on June 14, 2026, celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary.
“The Notorious” has disclosed that he has already rejoined the drug testing pool and is seriously weighing a showdown with his Ultimate Fighter Season 33 rival coach, Michael Chandler, a fight that was originally slated for UFC 303 in June 2024 but fell through due to a toe injury.
McGregor has received an 18-month suspension for breaching the UFC anti-doping policy, but it won’t stand in the way of his anticipated comeback.
On Tuesday, Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD), the body responsible for overseeing the UFC’s anti-doping program, announced that Conor McGregor has accepted an 18-month competition ban following multiple failures to provide the testing samples required under UFC rules.
The reported whereabouts failures occurred on June 13, September 19, and September 20, 2024. UFC-contracted fighters are obligated to keep their locations updated to allow testing agents to conduct random, unannounced drug tests. According to CSAD, McGregor failed to meet this requirement.
CSAD also noted that “The Notorious” actively cooperated with the investigation and acknowledged his responsibility for the violations. As a result, the agency reduced the standard 24-month sanction by six months. McGregor’s suspension officially began on September 20, 2024, the date of his third missed test, and ends on March 20, 2026.
"McGregor missed three attempted biological sample collections within a 12-month period in 2024, which constitutes a violation of the UFC," the statement read. "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."
Conor McGregor was last seen in the Octagon at UFC 264 in July 2021, where he endured a broken leg early in his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier. The Irish star boasts a UFC record of 10-4, with eight of his wins coming by way of knockout.
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