After dropping his opponent, Devin Haney, three times in a fight last month and winning a majority decision, it was discovered that Ryan Garcia tested positive for a banned drug.
According to ESPN, Garcia not only tested positive for Ostarine, a performance-enhancing substance, a day before the boxing match, but he also tested positive the day of the fight as well. A letter from the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association was sent to both fighters’ camps and all parties involved in the fight.
The 25-year-old boxer beat Haney on April 20 after knocking Haney off his feet three times during the fight. He won the contest by a majority decision (112-112, 114-110, and 115-109) and came into the 140-pound match overweight by 3.2 pounds, according to Yahoo! Sports.
“Everybody knows that I don’t cheat. Never taken a steroid. … I don’t even know where to get steroids. … I barely take supplements. Big lies, I beat his a**.”
Garcia took to his social media account to dispute the test results and claimed this was “fake news.”
His opponent released a statement to ESPN chastising the boxer for cheating:
“We learned about this situation not too long ago and it’s unfortunate Ryan cheated and disrespected both the fans and the sport of boxing by fighting dirty and breaking positive not once, but twice,” Haney said. “Ryan owes the fans an apology, and by his recent tweet, he still thinks this is a joke. We put our lives on the line to entertain people for a living. You don’t play boxing. This puts the fight in a completely different light. Despite the disadvantage, I still fought on my shield and got back up! People die in this sport. This isn’t a joking matter.”
This was Haney’s first defeat (31-1), and due to Garcia (25-1) coming into the fight over the weight limit, he was ineligible to obtain the WBC title he was fighting for that was on the line.