Palacio Tests Positive for HIV; Title Stripped : Boxing: Featherweight from Colombia was to defend his WBO crown in England tonight.

Ruben Palacio, a 30-year-old featherweight from Colombia, was told Friday that he was the first title-holding boxer to test positive for the virus that causes AIDS.

Palacio, who was to defend his World Boxing Organization crown against England’s John Davidson tonight, had taken a prefight blood test. Ed Levine, president of the fledgling WBO’s championship committee, said the organization’s only option was to bar Palacio from the ring.

“We can’t risk the life of another boxer by letting (Palacio) fight,” Levine said. “It’s a kind of disease that can be spread by blood (exchange) and boxing is a sport where that is likely to happen.”

Davidson and Steve Robinson of Wales will fight today for Palacio’s vacant crown in Washington, England.

“It’s a personal tragedy that goes far beyond the sport,” Levine said. “You think of Magic Johnson at the height of his career. It comes into perspective, and you see it’s a major problem in the world. Instead of going home with the biggest payday of his career, he’s going home with a test result that indicates his life is substantially shortened.”

Palacio, who returned home to Colombia, was tested twice this week to confirm the results. The British Board of Boxing Control has performed HIV testing as part of all prefight physicals since the mid-1980s. In the United States, only Nevada tests for HIV before all fights, although California performs random checks. Neither New York nor New Jersey conducts HIV tests on boxers, citing problems with civil rights and privacy laws.

Before Palacio’s result, only two active boxers were known to have tested HIV-positive. Neither’s identity has been revealed, but one was a preliminary-bout fighter in Nevada in 1991, and the other was a New York amateur who discovered he was infected through a private blood test during this year’s Golden Gloves tournament. After notifying Metropolitan Amateur Boxing Federation officials, the 20-year-old fighter was medically disqualified.

In 1990, Zimbabwe heavyweight Proud Kilimanjaro was barred from fighting Lennox Lewis, now the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, after he refused to provide the British board with the results of an AIDS test. He has not fought since then, and his health status and whereabouts are unknown. Former world lightweight champion Esteban DeJesus, a known intravenous drug abuser after his retirement in the late 1970s, died of AIDS in 1989.

Palacio (45-11-2, 19 knockouts), for 12 years a journeyman fighter, would have been making the first defense of the title he won last September with an upset over England’s Colin McMillan on an eighth-round technical knockout after both fighters were cut. McMillan has been notified that Palacio tested negative before their bout.

“I’m very relieved, because when I first heard the rumors (Thursday), I was very shocked, and so was my wife,” McMillan said. “All I feel is sympathy for a human being and a family man who has been given serious news.”