Holyfield Foe Has Hepatitis; Fight Off

What a great sport boxing could be if it weren’t for those darn blood tests.

Tonight’s title fight between heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and challenger Henry Akinwande at Madison Square Garden was postponed Friday when results of medical tests taken Tuesday showed that Akinwande is in the acute stage of hepatitis B, an infectious but treatable disease.

The possibility of this fight being rescheduled will depend on how advanced the disease is. Dr. Donald Kaminsky, who administered one of the tests given to Akinwande, estimated a recovery could take anywhere from a few weeks to six months for an extreme case. J.C. Courreges, Akinwande’s manager, refuses even to accept the fact that Akinwande has the disease until he sees the results of a second test.

Akinwande’s medical test provided the knockout blow for this snake-bitten card, but there were others that already had damaged the event, labeled D-Day by promoter Don King. By Friday, the D stood for disease, delivery and dispute.

* Disease: Blood tests conducted Tuesday revealed heavyweight Ray Mercer also has hepatitis B, disqualifying him as well from the undercard.

* Delivery: Maria Nieves-Garcia, scheduled to fight Christy Martin in a women’s bout, was disqualified when blood tests revealed she was in the 21st week of pregnancy.

* Dispute: As if all that weren’t enough, former champion Roberto Duran, 47, was going to be allowed to go forward with his scheduled World Boxing Assn. middleweight title fight against William Joppy Jr., but a court in Florida tied up Duran’s purse because of charges that he owed three years of child-support payments.

It wouldn’t be fair to say that this disastrous event might damage boxing’s image. First, a case would have to be made that boxing still has a positive image to damage.

Defenders of the sport, if they haven’t all run for cover, would say that this postponement was unavoidable. The hepatitis test is administered to boxers only in this country, and even here only in seven states, including California. It is designed to protect opponents from being infected with the disease, which is transmitted through blood or an exchange of body fluids.

But cynics question the coincidence of a positive test surfacing on the day before a fight that might have been headed for financial disaster. Only about 7,500 tickets had been sold for the event, which would have accommodated 15,000 at Madison Square Garden. And television orders for the Showtime pay-per-view event had been sluggish although Showtime executive Jay Larkin insisted the fight had begun to catch on with viewers in the last few days.

“Ticket sales had absolutely nothing to do with the cancellation,” said Paul Munich, Madison Square Garden vice president of athletics.

“We were optimistic,” Larkin said. “We had started to see some daylight. We felt there was clear sailing ahead. We had every reason to go forward.”

Larkin predicted the fight would have attracted 350,000-450,000 buyers, which would have avoided a financial loss for Showtime.

“It’s disappointing,” said Holyfield, the WBA and International Boxing Federation champion. “I trained for 13 weeks. You prepare yourself for 13 weeks and then you find out, not a week or two weeks but the day before. You have to roll with the punches.”

But neither Holyfield nor his attorney, Jim Thomas, understood why they didn’t learn until 36 hours before fight time that Akinwande had a medical problem. Holyfield took his blood test 10 weeks ago.

“I’m somewhere between the scratching-my-head stage and the accusation stage,” Thomas said. “At this point, I’m at the scratching-my-head stage.”

Lawrence Mandelker, a New York State Athletic Commission attorney, pointed his finger directly at the Akinwande camp.

“Everybody knows what the requirements are,” Mandelker said. “You should ask the manager and fighter why they waited until June 2 to submit the blood work.”

Those remarks infuriated Courreges, who repeated an expletive three times in response to the suggestion that Akinwande was asked to be tested earlier.

“Anywhere else in the world, he would be fighting,” Courreges said. “I’m not sure he has got hepatitis. He’s not tired. He’s not sick. I won’t believe he has it until I see the results of the next test.”

An additional test was given to Akinwande on Friday with those results expected Monday. Akinwande flew to Detroit on Friday for further testing.

As for Holyfield, who didn’t learn he wasn’t fighting today until he arrived at Madison Square Garden on Friday morning for a workout, there are decisions to be made.

Two fighters, Francois Botha and Chris Byrd, called Friday to offer themselves as last-minute stand-ins, but that idea was rejected.

Larkin guessed Holyfield would wait no longer than two months to see if Akinwande recovers before moving on to another opponent.

While Holyfield was obligated to fight Akinwande because he is the WBA’s No. 1 contender, Holyfield could always move on to No. 2.

Uh, no, scratch that idea. The No. 2 challenger is . . . Mercer.

Thomas said he’d like to see Lennox Lewis, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion and the man who stands between Holyfield and a unified title, resurface as the next opponent. Previous negotiations between Holyfield and Lewis broke down.

“I hope this turns into a springboard and provides enough momentum to get it done,” Thomas said.

And, of course, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, will be eligible to reapply for his license next month.

Can boxing survive Holyfield-Tyson III?

A better question: Can boxing survive? Period.

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Hepatitis B

* A viral disease causing inflammation of the liver and characterized by jaundice, fever, vomiting, abdominal discomfort and nausea. Hepatitis B is caused by a DNA virus that persists in the blood serum and is transmitted by infected blood, as through the use of a contaminated syringe. Also called serum hepatitis.

SOURCE: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.