Tony Ferguson details oddities in USADA testing at UFC 274: “They tried to have me sign a beneficiary agreement before I wrapped my hands”

Tony Ferguson is sharing oddities in the USADA testing at UFC 274.

It was Tony Ferguson (26-7 MMA) vs Michael Chandler (23-7 MMA) in a lightweight bout on Saturday May 7th, 2022 at UFC 274. Chandler won the fight by KO (see that here), just 17 seconds into Round 2.

Ferguson was taken to hospital and released early Sunday morning after his CT scans were negative. UFC President, Dana White described the outcome as ‘the most vicious knockout I’ve ever seen’.

Taking to ‘Twitter‘, Tony Ferguson recalled what happened to him with USADA testing 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. They tried to have me sign a beneficiary agreement before I wrapped my hands, which never happened in any of my fights UFC 274 https://t.co/vMZ7x3sCVC

— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) May 24, 2022

“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. They tried to have me sign a beneficiary agreement before I wrapped my hands, which never happened in any of my fights UFC 274.”

The USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) is recognized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as the official, independent anti-doping agency for the UFC.

Tony Ferguson chose to share this ‘tweet’ on the heels of Chael Sonnen recently discussing the current state of PED’s in the UFC in 2022.

In speaking on his ‘Bad Guy Inc’ podcast, Sonnen had this to say about PED’s in the MMA:

“The sport is so clean, it really is so clean. It’s not perfect, it’s a game, it’s a game with a flawed phycology by the user of which I used to be one. If it’s not on the banned list, then it’s not banned. There is a technicality to that rule, there really is. If you could get a chemist that could change one strand and create something new of which has not been identified by anybody…. You see where this gets really interesting.”

Sonnen went on to share his own personal suspension for using PED’s and what changed him, the fact that knowing that you could hurt or kill somebody by doing something secretly, that was what changed him.

As for Tony Ferguson, is does seem odd that there were no anti-doping tests performed on him the day before or the day of the fight with Michael Chandler. And as far as USADA wanting him to sign a beneficiary agreement – not sure what’s with that – a premonition perhaps?