THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220451
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Tommy Morrison was supposed to fight Saturday night in Richmond. Was, that is, until the heavyweight became the latest and most visible boxer to test positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Had he not been slated to fight in Las Vegas two weeks ago, Morrison would have been free to shed tainted blood in and around the Richmond Coliseum ring.
Nevada, where boxing is an entertainment and economic staple, is among four states that require HIV tests of boxers. Virginia, largely a mom-and-pop boxing operation, does not.
So when Virginia Beach's Kevin Hall fights tonight at The Boathouse in Norfolk, he'll have no idea if his opponent is infected. Whether opening a cut on the guy's face could threaten his own life, should Hall himself have an open wound.
That won't stop him. Hall, who says he was voluntarily tested for HIV last year, admits he thinks about the risks a lot. Thought about them even before the Morrison news.
But c'mon, he's 12-1 as a junior middleweight. And ``a red-headed white boy can make a lot of money in this sport if I keep doing as good as I'm doing,'' says Hall, 26.
``I wouldn't like to punch somebody and get blood all over me, not knowing he's infected. But the chances (of catching HIV) are probably very slim, going by the odds.''
There are no documented cases of HIV transmission in a ring. The people who box for money in this state's moose halls and banquet rooms play those odds every time. The fighters on Richmond's dozen-bout card, however, won't.
Don King is the promoter. And King, spokesman Michael Marley says, has promised that every fighter in every show he produces from now on will be HIV-negative.
In states without mandatory testing, King will pay to test those who haven't recently been cleared, Marley says. ``For the protection of everybody.''
Otherwise, Virginia's motto remains the same: ``You pays your money, you takes your chances.''
Love it or loath it, boxing is of little consequence to the state, which privatized its public boxing commission last year. Portsmouth's Doug Beavers ran that office and now oversees the Virginia Commission of the U.S. Boxing Association.
He says he gets splattered with blood at ringside at maybe half the fights he attends. ``I'd have to be crazy to not be concerned,'' he says.
Still, he is disinclined to push for mandatory HIV testing, simply as a matter of economics. Results of HIV tests take a couple days to determine. And because most Virginia boxing shows have lean budgets, paying expenses to bring out-of-town fighters in early for tests is not feasible, Beavers says.
``If you require it, you're gonna run all the small promoters out of the business,'' Beavers says.
What about demanding that fighters be tested wherever they train and produce evidence of negative results when they hit town?
``That would be possible,'' Beavers says. ``But I see it difficult to regulate. I could see scratching a lot of shows.''
The show, of course, must go on. And in Virginia, it is particularly easy to answer the bell, Hall says. His most exhaustive pre-fight examination in Virginia? A blood-pressure check, he says.
``You see the doctor for 10 minutes,'' Hall says.
Only championship bouts in Virginia require postfight drug tests. Hall says Maryland's regulations are much stricter, but standards in North Carolina are nearly nonexistent. Once in Carolina, Hall says, he knocked out a guy he knows was high on cocaine.
Maybe he was HIV-positive, too. Who could tell? Hall would like to know. He votes for tests, as many as any state wants to throw at him.
``To stay licensed, every three or four months you should have to have a blood test,'' says Hall, who admits to a drug-troubled past. ``That would help keep people clean, too. There's a lot of drugs in boxing.''
There's a surprise.
Here's another. ``I think it'll blow past,'' says Beavers, ``like everything else does in boxing.''
Hmmm. Ignore HIV and it'll go away.
Sounds good to me. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS File
Tommy Morrisonis plans to fight in Richmond were scuttled by an HIV
test in Nevada - a test not mandated in Virginia.
by CNB