ALBANY, N.Y. -- Professional boxers must undergo steroid testing before each fight in New York, and receive annual MRI brain scans, the state Athletic Commission announced Thursday.

New York is the first state to require either, said Commission Chairman Bernard Kerik. The decisions do not affect amateur boxing.

"That's excellent news," said Marian Muhammad, president of the International Boxing Federation. "Some states don't even test at all."

The East Orange, N.J.-based federation already requires steroid testing before its fights, but it regulates only those for championship titles, she said. Boxers in Las Vegas are subject to random steroid testing, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

In New York, boxers will be tested for anabolic steroids before each fight. Positive results will retroactively disqualify the boxer from the match. A second positive test will result in a 45-day suspension. A third positive will lead to a 90-day suspension, and a fourth positive means mandatory revocation of the New York boxing license.

New York, which licenses around 300 boxers annually, holds several dozen professional fights each year, said Athletic Commission spokesman Eamon Moynihan.

"Much of the debate about steroids focuses on charges that steroids give individual athletes an unfair advantage," said commission Chairman Bernard Kerik.

More importantly, "steroids are harmful to the long-term health of those people who use them," he said. "It also sends out a very dangerous message to young people, who wish to emulate the athletes they admire."

Muhammad believes steroids is a problem for other sports, such as baseball, not boxing.

"But it's a deterrent," she said.

Baseball owners approved a contract Sept. 5 that requires mandatory random testing for illegal steroids, beginning in 2003. Earlier this year, former MVPs Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti admitted using steroids, and Canseco estimated that up to 85 percent of all major leaguers took muscle-enhancing drugs during the years he played, 1985 to 2001.

Dr. Barry Jordan, New York's chief medical officer, believes steroid use among boxers could be more common than previously thought.

"In the past, we were under the impression that ... if boxers were taking steroids, they would move up in weight class quite a bit," he said. "But we've found there are ways to take steroids and not take on a lot of weight."

New York will also require state-funded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, either as part of annual medical exams, or -- for boxers fighting in New York for the first time -- pre-fight exams, Moynihan said.

Also, MRIs will be performed if a boxer sustains serious injury in a fight, Jordan said.

"One of the problems in boxing is chronic brain injury, the cumulative effects on the brain over time. Acute injuries through a knockout can happen, but they're not that severe and rarely result in brain injury," he said. "Hopefully, the MRI scan can pick up evidence of ongoing injury."

MRIs are more accurate than the less-sensitive computed tomography (CT) scans mandated by the state since the mid-1980s, said Jordan, who co-wrote research on the scans, published in the March 1990 issue of Journal of American Medicine.

"MRIs are much better in terms of looking at the anatomy of the brain," Jordan said.

However, the cost of MRIs prevented the state from using them, Moynihan said.

MRIs usually cost at least $1,000 each, compared to the $150 the state pays for CT scans, Jordan said. He negotiated a $500 price for MRIs through Cornell University Medical College in Ithaca, 45 miles south of Syracuse.

Depending on the extent of damage detected in an MRI, the state will either revoke the boxer's New York license or simply warn him or her about the risks, Jordan said.

If any state denies a boxer the ability to fight for medical reasons, that boxer can't fight a championship bout anywhere in the United States, Muhammad said.

"I am firmly convinced," Jordan said, "that we can make significant progress in preventing many injuries by telling boxers when it is time to retire and also in warning fighters about particular risks they face when they enter the ring."