The UFC commentator suggested the Irishman isn’t clean enough to fight at present
Rogan interviewed McGregor the last time he appeared in the UFC Octagon. © Jeff Bottari / Zuffa LLC
Former two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor is likely using performance-enhancing drugs and isn’t ready to return to the elite MMA promotion, commentator Joe Rogan has suggested.
McGregor has been out of the octagon since suffering a leg-break loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July last year.
Constantly teasing his comeback, the Irishman has used social media to upload photos and videos of himself with a bulked-up physique.
Considering this and the fact that the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has confirmed that McGregor is out of its testing pool, Rogan has drawn his own conclusions that McGregor might not be clean at present.
“He’s taking his shirt off and posing constantly, and he looks like his p*ss would melt that USADA cup,” Rogan remarked on his hugely popular podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience.’
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“Like, it would just like burn a hole right through the bottom of that USADA cup.
“The weird thing is that there is a loophole in USADA that allows you to get out of the testing pool. You can get out of the testing pool and just juice up,” Rogan added.
Rogan’s claims were supported by an expert on steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, Derek Cole from the More Plates More Dates YouTube channel.
“HGH, peptides, androgens are very restorative – like they’ll reinforce bone mineral density,” Rogan’s guest explained.
“Like, there’s certain stuff that’s going to stay in the system for a long time he could never use.
“But on the bio-identical side, anything pro-bone integrity, infrastructure enforcing, I would be highly incentivized. If I was him and I wasn’t being tested, I’d be pushing that vector hard.”
With McGregor seeming to spend more time aboard his luxury yacht, in his Dublin pub, or trying his hand at acting, many MMA enthusiasts have questioned his hunger to return to action.
Rogan has no doubts that the 34-year-old is capable of making a comeback, though, and thinks that inactivity has been his downfall.
“It is weird,” said Rogan. “His last big win was against Donald Cerrone, which was a significant win.
“I wonder, it could just be inactivity, too. The inactivity is probably one of the biggest factors in his demise – maybe even more so than just the silk sheets.
“He said that after the Dustin Poirier fight. … There’s a lot going on in a fight and if you’re not accustomed to fighting at the high level, the stress of that moment is so overwhelming.
“(It’s) very, very difficult for guys to take years off and then jump back in and be 100%.”
McGregor hasn’t responded to Rogan’s comments, but has previously addressed similar accusations made by former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith.
Calling Smith a ‘loser’ and an ‘embarrassment of a man’, McGregor tweeted that he is the “most tested fighter of all time in combat sport” and gives “everything to this game”.
With McGregor 1-3 in his last four fights, his return needs to be planned meticulously as another defeat could spell the end of his time at the elite despite his huge popularity.
