Former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs has been suspended for 90 days after testing positive for a banned substance following his first-round knockout of Marcus McGee in New York City on December 3.
The result was changed to a No Contest following Brigg’s suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission.
Briggs’s manager Ivaylo Gotsev, who declined not to say what the banned substance was, informed ESPN’s Dan Rafael that the test result came about because of medication Briggs takes for asthma.
"Shannon is on enough medication to kill a horse because of his asthma," Gotzev told ESPN. "All the medications he takes, other people couldn’t even get out of bed. But he’s out there running and training and fighting. He’s not a steroid user or a drug user. He’s using medication. We’re consulting with his physicians and seeing how we can make the proper adjustments so this doesn’t happen again.
Gotsev added: "Maybe he needs to stay off certain medications before fights. I don’t know. I’m not the doctor. But Shannon is on a number of medications due to his asthma. He had something found by the commission, and we’ve dealt with that."
Prior to the McGee fight Briggs had not fought since losing his WBO heavyweight crown to Sultan Ibragimov in June 2007.
January 3, 2009
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