Commission asks that Toney's win over Ruiz be stri

[sahyder1]

Commission asks that Toney's win over Ruiz be stripped

By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Boxing Writer

May 11, 2005

John Ruiz lost his piece of the heavyweight title in the ring when he was beaten by James Toney. Now he will likely get it back after Toney tested positive for steroids after the April 30 fight at Madison Square Garden.

Assuming the World Boxing Association follows its regulations and reinstates Ruiz, he will have gone from a retired former champion to the WBA title holder in a matter of only a few days.

The New York State Athletic Commission on Wednesday changed Toney's victory to a no contest after his post-fight urine test came back positive for nandrolone. The commission suspended Toney for 90 days and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.

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The real damage for Toney, though, will come from losing the heavyweight title he won for the first time in a unanimous decision over Ruiz.

``I'll go to all ends of the earth to make sure Johnny gets the belt back,'' Ruiz's manager, Norman Stone, said Wednesday.

Toney didn't return phone calls, but issued a statement through his promoter, Dan Goossen, denying he ever used performance enhancing drugs.

``I don't do drugs, period,'' Toney said. ``I've never used any illegal substances to prepare myself for a fight.''

Goossen told The Associated Press that a medication given Toney by his personal doctor following surgery to repair his biceps and triceps last year resulted in the test coming up positive.

Goossen said Toney took a medication called pregnenolone, but stopped using it before he began training in mid-January for the Ruiz fight.

``Through this medication he was taking it apparently carried over to the test,'' Goossen said. ``But right after he healed he took nothing other than hard work. The proof is in the pudding. That was not the body of a man who is taking performance enhancing drugs.''

Goossen said he would sit down with Toney on Thursday to decide whether to appeal the expected action by the WBA to take the title. But he noted there were three other sanctioning bodies with titles available.

``You can take the belt from the man but not the man from the belt,'' Goossen said. ``James won the fight fair and square no matter what anyone wants to say.''

Stone said the positive test showed otherwise.

``He's going to make a million excuses, but the fact is he tested positive for steroids,'' Stone said. ``No one who acts like he did before the fight is a normal person. He would go in rages over nothing.''

Both the suspension and the $10,000 fine were less than the nine months and $100,000 that Fernando Vargas was given when he tested positive for steroids after his September 2002 fight with Oscar De La Hoya.

But it would drop Toney from a July 23 card promoter Don King is planning that would have featured at least two heavyweight title fights.

According to WBA regulations, Toney will also not be allowed to fight for the organization's title for two years. The WBA is one of four boxing organizations that claim heavyweight champions.

Goossen said Toney could always fight in August against either IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd or the winner of the WBO title match later this month between Andrew Golota and Lamon Brewster.

``I think for James the most important thing is that his name is cleared,'' Goossen said. ``He's got a lot of people who love and trust him and doesn't want to disappoint any of them. He's not a drinker and he doesn't take drugs.''

Ruiz announced his retirement after losing a 12-round unanimous decision to Toney, but on Monday said he wasn't going to retire after all and would fight again.

Stone said he did not know about the positive test at the time, and that Ruiz simply wanted to continue fighting. But Stone said he told New York State Athletic Commission chairman Ron Scott Stevens before the fight to make sure he tested Toney because of the way Toney acted before the fight.

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.

Unlike Toney, whose body was soft and had visible fat, Vargas was muscular and chiseled in his fight with De La Hoya.

[Karizma]

this makes me cry.Fucking Tua, if only you'd stayed around and fucking fought Ruiz, shit, on a bad day he could put him away in 3 rounds.

I HATE JOHN RUIZ.He's lost to TWO former Middleweights, and they let him near the fucking strap?!Shit, he fought ancient Holyfield to win the fucking thing, give it to Byrd or Vitali or something.