LAS VEGAS – Ryan Garcia, in impassioned denials that he knowingly ingested the performance-enhancing substances that were found in his system, told reporters he intends to pay for the testing of “B” samples that will help clarify the matter.
“I don’t cheat, bro, this is God given,” Garcia told reporters after Friday’s Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia weigh-in outside T-Mobile Arena, clenching his left hand and throwing a practice punch like the one that scored those three knockdowns of Devin Haney on April 20th.
“Of course, I’ll take [the ‘B’ sample]. But who’s to say if they tainted the ‘A’ sample that they won’t taint the ‘B’ sample? At the end of the day, this is an inside job.”
The Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) informed interested parties in a Wednesday letter that Garcia tested positive for the banned substance ostarine on the day before and day of his majority decision upset of then-unbeaten lightweight champion Haney two weeks ago at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Beyond claiming that taking a contaminated supplement was unlikely because the only health supplement he ingested while preparing for the fight was a legal product that was purchased at CVS, Garcia, 25, floated a theory that former Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) head Victor Conte influenced the positive result.
In addition to ostarine, Garcia’s aforementioned tests found a “screened positive” for a metabolite, 19-norandrosterone, of the anabolic steroid nandrolone.
The New York State Athletic Commission is reviewing the matter and is empowered to reduce Garcia’s victory to a no-contest while also suspending and fining him.
“F*ck them all, bro,” Garcia said. “They’re all trying to take my victory away. This is some bull-f*cking-sh*t. Do your research.”
Garcia pointed to the circumstances in which Conte, claiming he’d turned a new leaf following a four-month prison sentence for his involvement in the BALCO scandal that ensnared baseball’s home run king Barry Bonds, Olympic sprinting champion Marion Jones and boxing Hall of Famer Shane Mosley, started a clean supplements company known as SNAC and lended some knowledge to VADA founder Margaret Goodman.
“Victor Conte helped create VADA. Look it up. This dude got banned from baseball, but we let him in boxing?” Garcia said. “What kind of bullshit is that? SNAC is gross. I did work with them, but I didn’t take them because I felt like it was cheating.
“These mother f*ckers are known cheaters. They know how to cheat and they know to taint shit because they just tainted my greatest victory. Why is it that everybody pops for ostarine? Come on man, this was an inside job.”
Appearing on TMZ Thursday, Conte said Garcia’s reasoning, first aired on social media, is flawed.
“His conspiracy theory is completely wrong and debunked,” Conte said. “I have nothing to do with this. I’m completely independent of VADA.”
Conte does serve as a supplement provider and conditioning advisor to several prominent fighters, including Haney, Terence Crawford and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
Garcia thinks his positive result is a coordinated attack. “One-hundred percent, it’s the devil, bro,” he said. “I would never, ever take steroids in my life. … I don’t cheat in video games.
“They see a Mexican on top and they want to take him down.”
He cited the fact that he’s participated in VADA testing for this fight, and for his April 2023 knockout loss to unbeaten Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“I did vigorous testing with ‘Tank.’ Not one time [did I] test positive,” Garcia said. “If there was ever a time to use steroids, it’s ‘Tank’ right?
“No weapon against me shall prosper. Keep praying for me because this is just the first attack.”
Garcia also addressed a question of whether he should be taken seriously given his crazed social media activity during the weeks leading to the Haney fight.
“There were many things I said that were serious. This is serious,” Garcia answered. “Do not believe the hype. They’re trying to set me up.”
Meanwhile, Haney appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter Thursday to say, “I’ve never been overmatched like that, and I’ve been in there with the best fighters in the world … I felt like something was up. It definitely had me questioning a lot of things – my preparation, my team. That’s what a loss will do to you.
“I want to be on an even playing field. Plus, boxing’s a brutal sport. I could’ve lost my life in that ring. That’s just reality. When a guy is taking performance-enhancing drugs, it’s dangerous for the guys in the ring.”
Haney said he’s “not too interested in” a rematch.
“We’ve seen the guy cheat, we’ve seen his character, the type of person he is,” Haney said. “This guy showed … he’ll do anything to win, including cheat. He put my life in jeopardy. It’s deeper than boxing with me.
“I want to take this somewhere else now.”
To that, Garcia replied, “We know damn well he don’t really want the rematch. So there won’t be [a] rematch.
“Easiest fight I’ve ever had in my life. So I’m not going to fight him again. I felt like I was fighting an amateur. I made it look like he shouldn’t even be in the ring with me, [and] if he wants to do it again, I’ll beat him even worse because he’s never going to be the same after that ass-whipping.”
The question that hovers now because of these results is whether Garcia will ever be the same, too.
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