Here we go again. Another week in the sport of boxing, another big names tests positive for a banned substance, a PED. Ryan Garcia, less than a month after his career-best win over Devin Haney, has as all fans have surely read or heard by now, tested positive for the substance ostarine.
ESPN broke the news, reporting how VADA tested Garcia twice prior to the fight in New York, with Garcia’s results coming back positive after the fight.
Garcia has responded to the news, declaring his innocence.
“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 him,” Garcia wrote on social media.
But why would the folks at VADA lie? Garcia, whatever he has to say about this matter, is in a pretty bad place right now. After failing to make the weight for the Haney fight, which was bad enough, comes the failed test. So what happens next? Will Garcia be banned? Will the result of the Haney fight be changed to a no contest? Will the two men fight a return fight?
Garcia now has 10 days in which to have his B sample tested.
Haney is obviously angry at the news of Garcia’s hot test, and Devin also responded to it, with him saying it’s “unfortunate that Garcia cheated and fought dirty.” With Haney saying Garcia “owes the fans an apology.”
“We put our lives on the line to give people entertainment,” Haney also said.
So again, will we see a rematch between these two, or will Haney move on? In light of Garcia’s mental health – and we still don’t know how much of his crazy pre-fight behaviour was scripted and how much of it wasn’t – is there a chance Garcia may say the hell with it and walk away from the sport?
That would be extreme, but with Ryan Garcia seemingly anything is possible and cannot be ruled out. Right now, however, we fans of Garcia cannot help but think what a shame this whole failed test episode is.
How many more big-name fighters are going to fail a drugs test this year and beyond?
