Bramble Fails Post-Title Bout Drug Test : Stimulant Found in Urine Sample Taken After Win Over Mancini

Traces of a stimulant were found in the urine of champion Livingstone Bramble following his Feb. 16 World Boxing Assn. lightweight title fight with Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini in Reno, state boxing officials said Thursday.

Harold Buck, director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, called the finding a “very serious” violation of rules against drug use by fighters and said the commission would meet next month to consider sanctions against Bramble.

Mancini’s manager, Dave Wolf, said he is protesting the fight and will ask the WBA to disqualify Bramble and strip him of the title he successfully defended against Mancini.

“We fully expect justice to be done and for Bramble to be disqualified,” Wolf said. “That stimulant gave him an advantage in the fight.”

But fight promoter Dan Duva, whose father, Lou, trained Bramble, said the champion merely used a nasal spray the morning of the fight that contained a drug banned by the state for use by fighters.

“He had a cold a couple of days before the fight and had a stuffy nose,” Duva said. “It’s no big deal.”

Bramble, who took the crown from Mancini last June at Buffalo, N.Y., retained it with a 15-round decision in which each of the three ringside judges favored Bramble by only one point.

Susan Johnson, a deputy attorney general representing the commission, said traces of a drug called Ephedrine that are commonly found in over-the-counter cold medications were found in a post-fight urinalysis.

Johnson said the drug is a decongestant and a mild central nervous system stimulant found in dozens of different medications. She also said there are decongestants that are sold without the drug and are readily available.

“This is a drug, it is a stimulant and our rules prohibit any stimulants,” she said. “We notified both parties and the WBA Thursday morning about the findings. The big issue is what the WBA will now do about the title.”

Murray Sleet, a WBA vice president from Canada who supervised the bout, said he would have no comment until he saw the athletic commission’s report on the drug finding.

Wolf said, however, that he expected the WBA to follow its stated guidelines and hold hearings that could result in a possible disqualification or declaration the fight was a no contest.

“The WBA spelled out the rules very clearly before the fight,” Wolf said. “One of the ironies is before the fight the Bramble camp was screaming almost hysterically for carefully monitored post-fight urine screening. Well, they got it.”

Neither the WBA nor the Nevada Athletic Commission requires a post-fight urine test, but commissioners agreed during a rules committee meeting the day before the fight that one would be conducted. The agreement came after Lou Duva asked for the urine test and for confiscation for testing of any materials in the corners of the two fighters.

“Everybody made such a big deal about the testing at the meeting,” Buck said. “I’ve been to hundreds of those meetings and I’ve never seen such a big deal made about testing.”

Buck said he was asked by Bramble’s handlers in the locker room before the fight if a product containing the drug could be used, and he told them it couldn’t after checking with the commission’s doctor at ringside.

But Duva said the medication had already been used by the time Buck was asked about it.

“They were told that in the locker room and they had used it in the morning,” Duva said, adding: “The worst that can happen is they can make him fight again. We’ll be happy to fight again.”

Wolf, who after the fight said he would advise a badly cut Mancini to retire, indicated Thursday that he and Mancini might not be opposed to a rematch.

Buck said the commission, which is tentatively scheduled to meet in mid-March, can fine Bramble and suspend or revoke his license but has no say in any decision about the title.