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Soliman’s banned substance identified

Fighters Network
05
Mar

In an update to an earlier story, the performance enhancing drug that 39-year old Australian veteran middleweight Sam Soliman tested for in his A-sample when facing Felix Sturm last month was oxilofrine, an amphetamine-class stimulant.

The positive test was made apparent by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), the organization in charge of drug testing in German sports. NADA does Olympic-style drug testing and is affiliated with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), applying WADA’s list of prohibitive substances, which can be found here.

On that WADA list of banned substances, oxilofrine can be found under Section S6. Stimulants, underneath “b. Specified Stimulants.”

Also, it was discovered that the standard urine test, which is common after every fight in Germany, is what caught Soliman and not any of the additional drug testing that Soliman and his team demanded prior to the fight. NADA conducted the urine test.



For full disclosure’s sake, it is worth noting that Thomas Putz, the head of the German Boxing Federation who released the info regarding Soliman’s positive A-sample to the press, also owns a security company, Putz Security AG, which provided the security for Sturm’s fights in the past, including February’s fight with Sam Soliman.

Additionally, Sturm Box-Promotion is listed on the Putz Security website (Puetz-Security.de) under the “Partners” section.

RingTV.com reached out to Mr. Puetz via e-mail but received no response in regards to this matter.

A German source with knowledge of the situation, however, provided RingTV.com with the following information.

“Puetz owns Puetz Security,” the German source said.

“They do security for most boxing events in Germany. But Puetz himself only attends those events as the BDB (German Boxing Federation) president. His company does the security. When he was voted president, the issue was addressed and no conflict of interest was found. Anyway, he had nothing to do with the sample. It was taken and tested by NADA and he, as the president of the German Boxing Federation, received the results first and informed all involved parties.”

Felix Sturm’s team also addressed the concerns issued in the statement issued by Soliman’s team that RingTV posted the other day.

“We are saddened by the reports coming out of Australia.” said Wolfgang Schiffbauer, Sturm’s publicist.

“They are accusing us of tampering with their doping samples, which is insane. The testing was conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency, the NADA, which is a partner of the German Confederation and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the WADA. This organization is beyond any doubt.

“The tests are done anonymous and only positive tests are matched to the respective athlete. We were as surprised as anyone when we were informed by Mr. Thomas Puetz, head of the German Boxing Federation, on Saturday about Mr. Soliman’s positive A-sample. Mr. Puetz, as the head of the supervising body of the event on February 1st in Dusseldorf, himself got the information via a letter from the NADA. We are strictly for a clean sport and believe doping should not have a lobby in boxing or any other sport. It is now in Mr. Soliman’s court to open the B-sample and prove his innocence.”

RingTV followed up on this information, contacting NADA to find out exactly the process in which they conduct their testing as well as analyze their samples.

“In general the testing procedure as well as the opening of the B sample is standardized in the WADA-Code/ NADA-Code,” said Eva Bunthoff, press officer for NADA, via e-mail.

“All samples of the NADA are being sent anonymized to the laboratories. There is just a code on every sample, no names. When the sample is being analyzed, the outcome is being reported to the NADA by the laboratory with the specific code of the sample. NADA is decoding it, so that the samples cannot be connected to an athlete in the laboratory. As well, the procedure for analyzing the B-sample is standardized in the WADA-Code/NADA-Code. The athlete has the right to open the B-sample in order to clear things up.”

Bunthoff informed RingTV that due to data protection, they cannot confirm any names regarding this situation and directed any questions regarding this specific case to the German Boxing Federation.

Mark Ortega is the boxing columnist for the Martinez News-Gazette and is a member of the Boxing Writers Assoc. of America and the RING Ratings Advisory Panel. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] as well as followed on Twitter @MarkEOrtega.

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