Morrison's Blood Test Was Positive, Promoter Confirms -- As Tommy Morrison Gets A New Test, Lennox Lewis' Promoter Wonders If His Boxer Contracted Hiv In A 1995 Bout.

TULSA, Okla. - Boxer Tommy Morrison, who hoped to be fighting for a multimillion dollar purse against Mike Tyson by year's end, tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, his promoter confirmed today.

Tony Holden said Morrison, 27, learned of the positive test results three nights ago, one night before his scheduled heavyweight bout against Arthur "Stormy" Weathers in Las Vegas, Nev..

The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Morrison hours before the fight, but boxing officials would not say why he had been suspended.

Holden said Morrison was undergoing further tests today to confirm the results.

In a statement read by Holden, Morrison said: "I understand that there are several people concerned about me. I am fine. I feel it would be selfish to ask you to say a prayer for me."

Morrison had cited religious reasons when he initially refused to take a test for the virus in the days before his fight. He left a doctor's office but returned the next day to submit a blood sample.

Meanwhile, Lennox Lewis, the last man to fight Morrison, will be brought in from Jamaica and tested for HIV, his promoter said yesterday after learning Morrison was given an indefinite medical suspension.

"We'd better get our man in," said Panos Eliades from London. "There's no telephone where he is in the sticks of Jamaica, but there was a lot of blood in that fight."

Lewis bloodied Morrison and stopped him in six rounds Oct. 7 in

Atlantic City, N.J. Lewis has not fought since.

There have been no documented cases of boxers infecting one another with the virus because of cuts. Morrison's opponent before Lewis was Donovan (Razor) Ruddock, also believed to be somewhere in Jamaica. Morrison, uncut, knocked out Ruddock on June 10.

The Nevada commission has tested about 1,500 fighters for HIV. Only one previous test came back positive, that one on a boxer later found to be fighting under an assumed name.

Morrison's trainer still insists that reports that Morrison is HIV positive are "just speculation."

Trainer Tommy Virgets said "we're going to do everything we can to reverse" the suspension.

One high-ranking Don King Productions executive suggested that Morrison - who was featured in the movie "Rocky V" - might have known his condition before he failed last week's test.

And a physician formerly with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that while "false negatives" are frequent in HIV testing, positive tests are more than 99 percent accurate.

Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada commission, made clear at the Don King card two nights ago that the suspension was not for drug use or steroids.

"When we don't reveal the results of the test, nine times out of 10 it's AIDS," Ratner said.

Virgets said Morrison had permitted previous blood tests, but said it was always difficult to get him to do so. "Drawing blood," said Virgets, was against the beliefs of Seventh-Day Adventists.

Compiled from Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News.