Ravens safety Tom Zbikowski improved his professional boxing record to 4-0 on Saturday night. But a report out today says Zbikowski has been suspended from boxing after failing a drug test.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chickasaw Nation Boxing Commission tested the fighters participating in the boxing event, which took place at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma, and that Zbikowski tested positive for THC, the main psychoactive substance in marijuana.
The Chickasaw Nation Boxing Commission has suspended Zbikowski 45 days. State and tribal boxing commissions generally honor each other’s suspensions, so the two boxing matches Zbikowski has scheduled for the next 45 days would likely need to be scrapped if he loses his appeal.
However, Zbikowski’s manager, Mike Joyce, told the Sun-Times that Zbikowski is scheduled to get a second test today, and that they expect to win an appeal of the first test’s findings.
“We’re appealing it,” Joyce told the Sun-Times. “After the fight, all the fighters tested were positive. They had you pee in a cup and put a strip of something in there. I’ve never seen results where you get them the day of the fight. It was like a home pregnancy test or something. . . . He’s taken all sorts of tests for the NFL and he’s never tested positive.”
It remains to be seen whether the NFL would view Zbikowski testing positive in a test administered for another sport, during the lockout, as a violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy.