LAS VEGAS – Ryan Garcia has officially enrolled in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association drug-testing protocol, a step seen as the final one toward a planned three-fight series that will include his return to the ring in May and a rematch with bitter rival Devin Haney in October.
Southern California’s Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), will additionally participate in a drug-testing program supervised by the California State Athletic Commission, according to the fighter’s manager, Guadalupe Valencia.
Garcia, 26, is currently serving a one-year suspension from the New York State Athletic Commission after submitting three positive tests for the banned performance-enhancing drug Ostarine, which forced his April 20 three-knockdown majority decision victory over two-division champion Haney, 31-0 (15 KOs), to be altered to a no-contest.
“Ryan has always been a clean fighter. He was the victim of contaminated supplements,” Valencia told BoxingScene in a Thursday morning text message. “The level of contamination had zero benefit to him, as our experts have opined. Those are the facts. He had tested all of his career with clean results, and that will continue to be the case.”
Haney and his father-trainer-manager, Bill Haney, have mandated Garcia’s enrollment in VADA as a condition of their rematch, which is planned as a Saudi Arabia Riyadh Season event in October.
Before that, Garcia will headline a planned early May card in New York in a welterweight fight against former WBA light-welterweight champion Rolly Romero with Haney scheduled to fight former unified 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez on the same card in a welterweight bout.
Garcia has questioned why VADA testing is necessary, expressing discomfort in the relationship between Haney conditioning supervisor and former BALCO mastermind Victor Conte and Las Vegas-based VADA.
Yet, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh routinely employs VADA for his fight cards, including the upcoming Feb. 22 card that includes title fights in the heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middleweight and lightweight divisions.
With Garcia also committed to a third fight for Alalshikh in early 2026, VADA’s random and stringent testing program will continue throughout these three cards.
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