PHOENIX — Tommy Morrison’s former agent said the fighter tested positive for the HIV virus in mandatory blood tests for a boxing license, The Arizona Republic reported Friday on its Web site.
“Tommy has tested positive for the HIV antibodies and he always has,” Randy Lang told the newspaper on Friday.
Lang said he stopped working for Morrison, the former heavyweight champion set to make his mixed martial arts debut Saturday night at Cliff Castle Casino, on Feb. 25 because the tests had been misrepresented by the boxer and promoter Peter McKinn.
A message left on McKinn’s cell phone wasn’t immediately returned.
The 38-year-old Morrison has been attempting a comeback after an 11-year retirement following the discovery that he was HIV positive. Morrison says he has taken several HIV tests during his comeback bid and all have been negative.
“They’ve been telling me I’ve been dying for 11 years,” Morrison said Thursday.
Lang told the Republic that he witnessed tests in Phoenix in January that were reported to be negative. The tests, also witnessed by McKinn and John Montano of the Arizona State Boxing Commission, were supposed to have been the basis for a West Virginia license that allowed Morrison to fight John Castle. Morrison knocking out John Castle in the second round.
Lang told the newspaper Friday that either the documentation was fraudulent or that the blood samples were switched.
Morrison was scheduled to fight in Houston in late April, but was pulled from the bout because state boxing officials didn’t get the results of lab tests in time.
Morrison won the WBO heavyweight belt in 1993 by outpointing George Foreman, but lost the title later that year. Morrison was scheduled to fight Stormy Weathers when he tested HIV positive in February 1996.