Boxers Square Off Over Extent Of Aids Risk Holmes Opposes Return Of Magic, But Frazier Says He Wouldn’t Worry
When former world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes stepped into the ring just a month ago, AIDS never crossed his mind. As he pounded his opponent into submission, the possibility of contracting the deadly virus was never a consideration.
“He was bloody, bleeding around his eyes,” Holmes said, remembering his Jan. 9 knockout of Curtis Shephard. “I don’t know if I got blood on me or not. I just hope and pray he was OK and I’m OK and we won’t have any repercussions from it.”
The world’s most brutal sport now has another threat, one far more damaging than a left hook on the chin. AIDS was there all along, of course, but most fighters never felt the need to keep up their gloves against an invisible, deadly virus.
Until now. The revelation last week that heavyweight contender Tommy Morrison has contracted the AIDS-causing HIV virus a finding that was confirmed Thursday - sent shock waves through the sweet science.
“When I see blood, it scares me,” said David Rabon, a few hours before he stepped into the ring for a heavyweight fight Thursday. “It don’t matter if they do testing, it still scares me. They make mistakes, you know.”
Georgia is one of a handful of states that requires boxers to be tested for AIDS and HIV before every fight. Now, the calls for mandatory testing in every state have the sound of a unanimous voice reverberating throughout the sport.
“It’s an advantage knowing both fighters are being tested,” said heavyweight Eli Dixon, who also took part in Thursday’s sixfight card at the Cobb Galleria Center. “It’s a relief to have that off your mind. Without testing, I don’t know. I would probably be leery or hesitant about going inside or clashing heads, anything such as that.”
The Atlanta fights were part of a charity event that brought together at ringside some of the greats of the fight game, including Holmes, Thomas Hearns and Joe Frazier.
Hearns said he has feared the AIDS virus since he learned in 1991 that basketball great Magic Johnson had tested positive.
“When I heard Magic has come down with it … it was a serious situation to me,” said Hearns, who has won an unprecedented seven world titles in six weight divisions. “I knew if it could happen to Magic, it could happen to anybody.”
Holmes and Hearns said they are tested before every fight as part of their regular medical examination - no matter what the state requires - and every six months between fights.
Frazier, who 25 years ago won the heavyweight title with a memorable victory over Muhammad Ali, never had to worry about the still-undiscovered AIDS virus when he was fighting. But he wonders now if the danger was there all along.
“It’s probably been here since life,” he said. “It’s probably been here since the Bible. We just didn’t know what it was.”
But even if AIDS had been a looming danger when Frazier fought in the 1970s, he said it wouldn’t have kept him out of the ring.
“I wouldn’t have worried about it,” he said. “If you worry about that, you’re going to have to stay inside the house locked up all the time. It could happen anywhere, shaking a hand, a kiss on the jaw, anywhere.”
Though health care officials say the chances of contracting the disease through athletic competition are remote and Morrison is convinced he was infected through promiscuous sex, no boxer interviewed Thursday said he would be willing to step into the ring with someone who knowingly had the AIDS virus. Holmes went a step further, saying no one should be allowed to compete in sports while carrying the deadly virus, including Johnson.
“Even though with Magic Johnson playing basketball the chances are probably slim, I wouldn’t want to play basketball against him, either,” Holmes said. “I think a person like that ought to consider other people who surround him.”
In boxing, bravado and a sense of invulnerability are essential traits for success, and the possibility of serious injury and even death looms over every fight.