After learning of Australian middleweight contender Sam Soliman’s positive test for a performance enhancing drug following his Feb. 1 upset victory over Germany-based former titleholder Felix Strum, RingTV.com reached out to Soliman’s manager, David Stanley, to ask if he had any official statements in response to the news of his fighter’s positive A-sample.

Stanley expressed shock at the test result and anger with the manner in which drug testing was handled prior to the IBF title-elimination fight. He maintains that Soliman did not cheat to win the biggest fight of his long career and was outraged that German boxing authorities announced the A sample result before contacting the fighter.

“We are shocked and stunned by the international press comments reported today by associates of Sturm Boxing, the Bund Deutscher Berufsboxwer President Thomas Putz.,” Stanley told RingTV.com in an email.

“Team Soliman insisted in our contract for this bout that both boxers be screened for performance enhancing drugs. The Sturm camp ducked and weaved all through this process and this has been reported in the media before the bout.”

Stanley said Team Soliman met with National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) officials within an hour of arriving in Germany on Thursday, Jan. 24^th, for the fight against Sturn.

“Our screen was conducted at a well known sports clinic in Koln. The owner of this clinic is a good friend of Mr Sturm’s,” he continued.

“The NADA officials advised that they were not screening for PED’s as we had stipulated in our contract, but for human growth hormones only.”

Stanley said he spoke to Karsten Mahlmann, Sturm’s promotional manager and marketing director for STA 1, the television company that has rights with Sturm.

He said that Mahlmann promised to see the list of items expanded to include the following: 

┬À Testosterone

┬À Calculated Free Testosterone

┬À Sex Hormone Binding Globulin

┬À Folicle Stimulating Hormone

┬À Luteinizing Hormone

┬À Liver Function Test

┬À Cholesterol High Density Lipoprotein

┬À Low Density Lipoprotein

┬ÀUrine Tests

┬À Cocaine

┬À Amphetamines

“To this day we do not have confirmation that both boxers were screened for the agreed substances,” said Stanley.

Stanley said he had faxes from Dr. Hans Geyer, Deputy Head, Institute of Biochemistry, Centre for Preventative Doping Research, German Sport University in Cologne, that talk to the procedure for testing of these substances.

“On the morning of the bout, when we still could not get confirmation of the substances we had insisted be screened for, Mr. Thomas Putz of the BDB handed us in an IBF supervised official meeting what he said to be the screening results for Felix Sturm,” Stanley said.

“Doctor Peter Lewis and Michael Bates of Maurice Blackburn, Lawyers and I examined the report, which was in German. After some time, we noticed the birth date on the form was not one that would match Felix Sturm. We were provided with another boxer’s results, a female boxer who was on the undercard. We returned to the meeting, and through the IBF Fight Supervisor, Mr. Lindsey Tucker, we returned the other fighter’s test results.

“My experience with Thomas Putz is that he is not neutral, and is too close to the Sturm camp. He should have contacted Sam Soliman if there was an irregularity in the A sample, not gone to the media.

Stanley said that Soliman’s lawyer, Michael Bates, is briefing legal representation today about the damage to the 39-year-old veteran’s reputation and future by the release of this information to the international media without speaking with and notification to the fighter.

“We are organising with Australian Anti Doping Authorities tomorrow how we will deal with sample B. We have full confidence in NADA in Germany, however, the protocols we agreed with them have been breached by Mr. Putz.”