By Allan Fox: 39-year-old middleweight contender Sam Soliman (43-11, 17 KO’s) has reportedly tested positive for a banned drug for his last fight against former WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-4-2, 16 KO’s) last month on February 1st in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Soliman out-worked Sturm, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 116-111, 114-113 and 114-113. The German Boxing Federation reports that Soliman’s sample A came up positive for a designer drug.

The Germany Boxing Association president Thomas Putz says they have the option of now testing the B sample to determine whether they get a positive test for that one as well, according to RingTV.

Sturm’s manager Roland Bebak said to RingTV “We hope for justice and a new shot for Felix.”

Soliman could be in deep trouble if his second test comes up positive because his win over Sturm would be wiped out, and changed to a no contest. In addition, he would no longer be the mandatory challenger for IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale. That’s a fight that Soliman would get a nice payday for even if he loses the fight.

Interestingly enough, it was Soliman that asked for the extra testing for his fight with Sturm, and then he’s the one that winds up testing positive.

It seems likely that Sturm will get a second chance at an IBF middleweight eliminator bout against a different opponent if Soliman’s second sample tests positive. The next highest contest ranked by the IBF is #4 IBF Predrag Radosevic.

This is someone that Sturm would likely have a good chance of beating, and that would put Sturm back in with Geale for a rematch. Geale beat Sturm by a 12 round split decision past year in September. Sturm badly wants the rematch, and it looks like he’ll be in a good position to get one depending on the results of Soliman’s second sample.