ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602130033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tommy Morrison got the news in a crowded casino, only hours before he was to fight a comeback bout. Nevada boxing officials had suspended him, for what a source said was a positive test for the AIDS virus.
The heavyweight contender and sometimes actor was in seclusion Sunday in his native Oklahoma, where he flew after being suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Nevada officials refused comment on why Morrison was not allowed to fight, citing privacy laws. But a source familiar with the testing told The Associated Press that Morrison had tested positive for HIV.
Morrison reportedly was supposed to be tested for HIV on Wednesday, but refused once at the doctor's office to submit a blood sample, said Dr. James Nave, the athletic commission's chairman. Morrison took the test a day later.
``I was called and told he did not want to take the test, citing religious beliefs,'' Nave said. ``I said it was my order as chairman to take the test or he would not fight.''
Morrison's trainer, Tom Virgets, refused to say whether or not Morrison tested positive for HIV. He said Morrison planned to see a doctor today in Oklahoma.
``We're going to go and get retested,'' Virgets said. ``I would say at this point in time that everything is speculation.''
Morrison, who beat George Foreman in 1993 in his last fight in Nevada, was to have fought journeyman Arthur Weathers in the first of a series of fights under his new promoter, Don King.
Virgets said he was scheduled to fight two weeks later in Richmond, Va., and was then going to meet a top-10 contender on the March 16 undercard of the Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno heavyweight title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Virgets said King had promised Morrison either a title fight or a fight with Tyson by the end of the year, for a reported purse of $4 million.
``We were well on our way up the ladder looking to get where we wanted to be,'' Virgets said. ``We were going to get either a Tyson fight or a fight for one of the titles.''
Virgets said he went looking for Morrison on Saturday afternoon after the Nevada commission informed him of the medical suspension. He said he found the boxer in the casino of the MGM Grand and sat him down and told him the news.
``It's a shocking thing to hear when you're told you've been medically disqualified,'' Virgets said. ``He wanted to know if there was anything we could do about it.''
Virgets said he put Morrison on the first plane he could find to Oklahoma on Saturday night. The trainer said he and Morrison share an apartment in Tulsa and Morrison has a home in Jay, a town about 50 miles from Tulsa.
A woman who answered the door Sunday afternoon at Morrison's ranch home in Jay spoke inside with the boxer for a few minutes before returning to say he did not wish to speak to reporters.
Earlier, his mother, Diana Morrison, said she and her son did not know what the suspension was about.
``I'm just taking it as it comes. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions,'' Diana Morrison said.
Morrison, 27, last fought Oct. 7, when he was cut and bloodied en route to being stopped in the seventh round by Lennox Lewis.
A British promoter for Lewis, Panos Elizdes, said the former WBC heavyweight champion was in Jamaica and hadn't heard about Morrison's suspension.
``We'd better get our man in there [for testing],'' Elizdes told the New York Daily News. ``There was a lot of blood in that fight.''
Although state boxing officials declined to comment on Morrison's case, the commission's chief physician, Flip Homansky, said that if a boxer would test positive for HIV, the test would be repeated. If it still comes up positive, a more sophisticated test is administered. That analysis takes 24 hours.
``So, in essence, we would check it three times,'' Homansky said.
Morrison was paid $2.1 million for his seventh-round loss to Lewis, a fight that could have led to his first title shot since he lost the WBO heavyweight crown to Michael Bentt in October 1993. He is 45-3-1 in a seven-year career with 39 knockouts, including a 12-round decision over Foreman in 1993 for the WBO title.
Morrison was a popular attraction in the heavyweight ranks, with a strong following drawn by his blond good looks and punching power that sometimes disguised a weak chin.
The crowd of about 5,000 at the MGM Grand on Saturday night booed when told Morrison would not fight in the semi-main event on the Felix Trinidad-Rodney Moore IBF welterweight title fight.
``I don't think 10 people were there to see Felix Trinidad,'' Virgets said. ``Tommy has always had a following. Not only because he's white but he is charismatic and articulate.''
In addition to his boxing career, Morrison was an actor who played a featured part as a boxer trained by Sylvester Stallone in ``Rocky V.'' He most recently had a guest role last month on the ``Cybill'' show, where he also played a boxer.
Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said he was under orders from Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa not to disclose the reason for Morrison's medical suspension.
Ratner said Morrison underwent a prefight physical on Friday along with other fighters on the card and took the HIV test the previous day. He said Nevada sometimes tests fighters for drugs prior to fights if they have previous drug problems but did not test Morrison.
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Morrison colorby CNB