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Boxer being investigated for suspicious substance

OAKLAND: The California State Athletic Commission confiscated a suspicious substance from the corner of Colombian boxer Edison Miranda during his loss to Andre Ward on Saturday, Ward’s trainer and the fight’s promoter told The Associated Press.

Trainer Virgil Hunter said the substance was in a brown bottle resembling a Vaseline tub apparently hidden in a bag in Miranda’s corner. When Miranda’s cornermen were spotted taking the substance out of the bag around the fourth or fifth rounds of the fight at Oakland’s Oracle Arena, it was seized before officials actually saw it given to Miranda, according to promoter Dan Goossen. The commission’s offices were closed Sunday, but spokesman Luis Farias confirmed officials seized something from Miranda’s corner during the bout. The commission will determine its next step Monday, Farias said. Ward (19-0) won the 168-pound fight in his hometown with a comfortable unanimous decision over Miranda (32-4).

Miranda’s managers, Steve Benbasat and Greg Wantman, didn’t immediately respond to e-mails. Hunter and Goossen don’t assume anything illegal occurred, and most of the substances applied to boxers’ heads and bodies during fights are legal petroleum jelly mixes or coagulants to stop bleeding. But boxing lore also is filled with stories of substances surreptitiously applied to a fighter’s head or arms that could irritate an opponent’s eyes or open cuts. Ward had a cut above his eye from early in the first round. Petroleum jelly is routinely applied to fighters’ faces to stop cuts and to lessen the impact of punches to the face, although it’s not allowed on the body and can’t be used excessively, according to California’s boxing code of regulation. ap

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