The U.S Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has refuted the claims made by Tony Ferguson following UFC 274.
The USADA has a responsibility to test all UFC athletes they see fit, whenever and wherever they see fit. Since the organization linked up with the UFC back in 2015 to handle the drug testing, there have been many athletes who have publicly voiced their unhappiness with the process. On some occasions, the testing people can show up at houses very early, or basically any other place that a fighter is at random times.
This past week Tony Ferguson commented on a USADA story expressed by Chael Sonnen, with a story of his own. Ferguson announced on his Twitter account that he had a strange run-in with USADA before his last fight against Michael Chandler at UFC 274.
“Usually @usantidoping tests as soon as I get into the arena, almost every time. This time I wasn’t tested day before or day of,” Ferguson wrote. “They tried to have me sign a beneficiary agreement before I wrapped my hands, which never happened in any of my fights UFC 274.”
This statement by Ferguson was unusual for him since he does not typically post things like this or write in this straightforward type of way. His posts are generally statements broken up by emojis. No further information was given on this topic by himself or anyone associated with him.
This odd claim by Ferguson was met with a response from the USADA, although they could not give any personal information on testing times.
“It is not part of USADA procedure to have an athlete sign a beneficiary agreement, and we did not approach Mr. Ferguson with such a request,” a spokesperson from USADA told Bloody Elbow.
What do you make of Tony Ferguson’s strange USADA claim?