Boxer Fought Despite HIV

A 19-year-old boxer without a clean HIV test -- who was later found to have the virus that leads to AIDS -- was allowed to fight last month even though state rules should have kept him out of the ring, according to officials and others familiar with the situation.

The HIV-positive boxer, Tommy Perez, of Las Vegas, was knocked out in the third of four scheduled rounds of a super-featherweight match by Guillermo Ruiz, 19, of Coachella. The bout took place June 3 at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario.

Perez’s HIV test was inconclusive, according to Alex Camponovo, the card’s matchmaker. To compete, a fighter must present proof of a negative HIV test.

The word “inconclusive” in the HIV category on the medical report was difficult to read, according to a source familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is being investigated. The report on Perez’s blood work was given to Joe Borrielli, the California Athletic Commission’s inspector on site that day, Camponovo said.

“It just slipped through the cracks,” Camponovo added. “It slipped through my eyes and slipped through [the commission’s] eyes. But there was no foul play involved.”

While conceding that proper procedures were not followed, officials with the athletic commission declined to discuss specifics of the case.

“Because of confidentiality concerns for the fighter, we can’t comment, though I would like to,” said Chris Mears, the commission’s chairman. “We take a matter like this extremely seriously.”

The matter is being investigation, said Armando Garcia, executive officer of the athletic commission. The fight’s referee, Ray Corona, and Perez’s opponent, Ruiz, expressed concern about possible infection, though an AIDS expert said the risk is low.

Perez learned that he was HIV-positive from a second test, administered when he returned to Las Vegas to continue training after the fight, said Roberto Diaz, a boxing manager who arranged the Ontario fight. Perez was put on indefinite medical suspension by the commission. “He was devastated,” Diaz said. “I told him, ‘Somebody obviously dropped the ball in allowing you to fight. But you’re young and you’re strong. Boxing is not a part of your life now, but you have a bigger fight ahead of you.’ ”

Alex Paul, Perez’s Las Vegas trainer, said in an interview Friday that he drove Perez to a local health clinic nearly a week after the fight for the second test.

“He called me the next morning,” Paul said, “crying a little bit and said the test had come back positive. He told me he was going home to his family in Mexico.”

Paul said Perez called him several days later to say he had arrived in Mexico. The trainer said he has not heard from Perez since.

Corona, who had blood on his shirt from the fight, said Garcia, the commission’s executive officer, told him Perez had tested positive for HIV. Whatever blood was present came from a cut in Ruiz’s mouth, and not from Perez, according to matchmaker Camponovo.

“I have seen a tape of the fight, and the other kid [Perez] came out clean,” Camponovo said. “I saw no cuts in his mouth or anywhere else.”

The chance of contracting the disease -- normally spread by the exchange of body fluids -- through the open air is remote, according to Paul Volberding, co-director of AIDS Research Institute, a San Francisco medical center and a nationally recognized authority on HIV/AIDS.

“HIV is not the death sentence it used to be,” Volberding said. “But I am sympathetic to the concerns of anyone who is exposed. It is certainly appropriate to be concerned about the risk of infection. Boxing does have opportunities for exposure. But at the same time, it is difficult for the virus to be transmitted in this manner. The risk is extremely low. But I don’t want to say the risk is zero. There is a risk.”

Volberding said he did not know of a single documented incident in which the disease had been transmitted in an athletic event.

“There are not very many virus particles in the blood itself,” Volberding said, “and the skin is an excellent barrier.”

Still, Corona and his wife, Arlene, said they are concerned that Perez’s blood may have gotten in Corona’s mouth or tear ducts.

“I am mad at the commission for allowing this to happen,” she said. “The first thing I thought of is death. I was worried for my life. I was worried for his life. I was worried for my [five] kids. I was afraid for everybody. ... They say it’s one in a million that he could get it, but how do I know that he’s not going to be the one?”

Said referee Corona: “What are the odds of winning the lottery, but somebody does win it. This is my life and I have been put in this situation through no fault of my own.”

No trace of the disease has been found in blood samples taken from Corona and his wife, though it could take months for the virus to show up. Corona is currently taking a combination of HIV medicine, which has forced him to take off a month from his job as a truck driver.

Ruiz also was tested again, came up negative and has since been allowed to return to the ring, getting a technical draw with Carlos Hernandez last week at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Although he was informed that his fighter might have been exposed to HIV, Joel Diaz, Ruiz’s manager and trainer, said he wasn’t informed that Perez had indeed tested positive until he was called earlier this week by a reporter.

“That’s news to me,” said Diaz, speaking by phone from his gym in Coachella. “I’m shocked and a little stunned. Thank God there was no blood from the other fighter, but, at the same time, I am going to keep an eye on my fighter.”

Diaz then informed Ruiz of Perez’s HIV diagnosis.

“I’m a little scared, yeah,” Ruiz said. “I want to keep boxing, but I want to make sure the next time I fight, [commission officials] do everything the way they are supposed to do it. I know mistakes are made, that it could happen, but I hope the next time, they look more carefully.”

The investigation into the Perez bout comes as the state Department of Consumer Affairs is conducting a wider probe into the methods employed by the California Athletic Commission in the licensing of fighters.

“This is the commission’s responsibility,” said Joel Diaz, Ruiz’s manager. “I don’t know how it skipped through their hands.”