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A Positive Drug Test Could Cost James Toney The Title
If Toney is stripped of his title, it would revert to Ruiz (right)
James Toney's reign as a heavyweight champion could be a brief one after a positive drug test following his WBA title fight with John Ruiz.
Toney violated the illegal substance policy of the New York State Athletic Commission, which Wednesday asked that Toney's WBA title victory over Ruiz be changed to a no-decision as the result of a positive drug test.
The commission also suspended Toney for 90 days, retroactive the April 30, and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine. He must submit himself for drug testing.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Toney's co-promoter admits the boxer's tests reflected the steroid Nandrolone. But Toney's camp said that medicine used to help Toney heal following bicep and tricep surgeries helped create the steroid, thus triggering the positive test.
"Being accused of taking performance enchancing substances is an insult to me. I don't do drugs period," Toney said in the statement. "I've never used any illegal substances to prepare myself for a fight."
In the statement, Toney co-promoter Dan Goossen said: "Toney received medical treatment for recovery from his biceps and triceps surgery last year. His doctor has stated that the combination of medications used to control the inflammation and tissue growth caused the positive test result. This is further supported, since the body, in combination with the medications, naturally create the form of substance ("Nandrolone") reflected in the test results."
New York athletic commission chairman Ron Scott Stevens made the request Wednesday to Fight Fax, which handles an official national list of suspensions for boxers.
On Wednesday, Stevens told ESPN.com that Toney can file an appeal. Upon notice of his suspension, Toney has 30 days to request a hearing and then prepare to present his case for repeal of the penalty. Stevens refused to identify the banned substance.
Under New York rules, the result of the fight would be changed to a no contest if a second test returned positive.
If Toney tested positive, he could be stripped of his title by the WBA. Under WBA regulations, the title would be given back to Ruiz, who lost the 12-round decision to Toney on April 30 in New York.
In the Toney camp statement, Goossen said: "It would be unjust for the sport to reprimand a fighter who was under a doctor's care and direction many months before in healing a career threatening injury."
Ruiz announced his retirement after losing a 12-round unanimous decision to Toney at Madison Square Garden, but on Monday said he wasn't going to retire after all and would fight again.
Toney became just the third former middleweight champion to win a piece of the heavyweight title when he won the decision over Ruiz. The 5-foot-9 Toney weighed 232 pounds for the fight.
According to the WBA's "World Championship Regulations" rule 18.23-4, "If the challenger wins the championship fight and his antidrug test is positive, and the losing champion has a negative result, then the champion shall retain his title in spite of the loss, and the challenger shall be disqualified and shall not box for the title from the World Boxing Association during the next two years, and only after presentation of medical evidence that he has been rehabilitated."
Some states recently began testing fighters for steroids, mostly in title fights, but only one other fighter of note has tested positive. That was Fernando Vargas, who was fined $100,000 and suspended for nine months following his loss to Oscar De La Hoya in September 2002.
Unlike Toney, whose body was soft and had visible fat, Vargas was muscular and chiseled in his fight with De La Hoya. Toney is one of four fighters who own various pieces of the heavyweight title.
Ruiz attorney Tony Cardinale said he had not been notified of any irregularity by the New York commission. Ruiz was in surgery on Tuesday to repair his broken nose, which was injured in the fight with Toney.
"Our position is, if it's true, shame on James Toney," Cardinale said. "If it is true, it's the only way he could have beaten Johnny. At some point they have to notify us."
"If it's true, then the injured party is John Ruiz and he deserves to know as soon as anyone else does."
Cardinale said Ruiz's un-retirement had nothing to do with the steroid accusations against Toney.
"Believe it or not, the two things are not connected," he said. "We announced [coming out of retirement] on Monday and the next thing I am getting calls about Toney testing positive. I called Ron Stevens and he said, 'You'll hear something by the end of the week.' "
Ruiz, 33, spent nine days in retirement before announcing a comeback.
"My emotional decision, coming right after losing a fight I felt I won, was premature," Ruiz said in a statement. "I was tired of all the criticism and felt everybody was against me. After reviewing the tape and talking it over with my advisors, I decided that I don't want to go out that way. If they want me out of the sport, they're going to have to knock me out. I'm back."
Ruiz is a two-time title holder and the only Latino to win a piece of the heavyweight title.
The win allowed Toney, 36, to become just the third former middleweight champion to claim a heavyweight belt, joining Bob Fitzsimmons (1897) and Roy Jones Jr. (2003).
Several other prominent fighters have tested positive for banned substances, including steroids.
The most recent big-name fighter to test positive for steroids was Fernando Vargas, who tested positive following his 11th-round knockout loss to Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas in 2002. Because De La Hoya won to unifying junior middleweight titles, the result stood. But Vargas was fined and suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
In 1995, Francois Botha decisioned Axel Schulz in Germany to win the vacant IBF heavyweight title, but Botha tested positive for steroids after the fight and the result was changed to a no decision. However, the IBF has different rules than the WBA. Botha was stripped and the title was vacated. Michael Moorer later defeated Schulz for the vacant title.
Source: AP
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