By Victor Salazar

North Bergen, New Jersey - Last week, BoxingScene.com reported that there would be no random testing done by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for Last Friday's Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV fight between Antonio Tarver and Steve Cunningham in Newark, NJ.

When BoxingScene.com spoke to Cunningham at his open media workout, Cunningham admitted he wanted random testing throughout camp but will settle for the urine and blood testing before and after the fight.

“We wanted the test because this man has a history and that’s what he got busted for,” Cunningham said in reference to Tarver testing positive for the anabolic steroid drostanolone in a pre-fight urine test administered by the California State Athletic Commission for his fight with Lateef Kayode.

“We’re going to get tested though, not during camps but before and after the fights, next time most we’ll get it definitely. It was there available for us but it wasn’t top priority at the time. Camp has been real busy so we’ll settle for before and after.”

His manager and wife Livy Cunningham also told BoxingScene that they were satisfied with the testing protocol taking place for this fight.

“We get tested before the fight and post-fight so we’re happy with those measures,” his manager said. “We would have liked to do random and we had a similar situation in the past but promoters aren’t lining up and trying to pay for that type of testing. It could cost like $5000. Don’t quote me on the cost so it can be upwards of that. So we had a happy medium in between with fight night being tested and after.”

Last Wednesday, BoxingScene's Keith Idec reported that the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board would be conducting pre-fight and post-fight blood tests, urine and hair testing for performance-enhancing drugs including blood doping, diuretics, external testosterone, human growth hormone, masking agents and steroids. New Jersey’s SACB tests will be in accordance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines and sends samples only to labs approved by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

When Premier Boxing Champions was introduced back in January of this year - Lamont Jones, the Vice President of Operations for Haymon Boxing was quoted as saying, “Today's fans deserve a wider audience and broader exposure. With the support of United States Anti-Doping Agency, each boxer participating in the PBC series will be subject to random, Olympic-style drug testing.”

Annie Skinner, a spokesperson for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, issued a statement via email to BoxingScene in regards to random drug testing for the Tarver-Cunningham fight and PBC fights moving forward.

“Dear Mr. Salazar. Thank you for your interest in a clean sport. While we do conduct testing for athletes in PBC fights, at this time we have not been contracted to test all of them. We were not contracted to test the Cunningham vs. Tarver fight. We have had initial discussions with the PBC about the potential to implement a comprehensive, year-round program in the future for all fights and all fighters.”