Home

Boxing

Ryan Garcia’s ‘Inside Job’ Claims Gets Debunked but Dark Clouds Still Hang Over PED Controversy With Devin Haney

Published 05/06/2024, 10:19 AM EDT

Follow Us

Chael Sonnen is not interested in their conspiracy theories surrounding Ryan Garcia‘s positive drug test. ‘King Ry’ defeated Devin Haney in spectacular fashion at their April 20 bout in New York, after some of the most entertaining build-up to a fight in the recent past.

The victory (and his shenanigans) made Garcia an instant superstar in the boxing world. However, it later emerged that he failed two drug tests, testing positive for Ostarine and a metabolite of nandrolone, which has put his win in jeopardy. And since the results have come out, there have been a bevy of conspiracy theories about it. Sonnen, however, isn’t interested in any of them and wants to know what will happen to Garcia now.

Chael Sonnen curious about disciplinary action against Ryan Garcia

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Poll of the day

1h left

Who will win the world heavyweight title?

Tyson Fury

Oleksandr Usyk

After Ryan Garcia’s positive drug test, the 25-year-old has vigorously denied that he took any illegal substances and made accusations that “they” tainted his samples and that the positive tests were an “inside job”. In addition, his former rival, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, has laid the blame for the positive drug test on the feet of Haney’s off-and-on promoter, Eddie Hearn of ‘Matchroom Boxing’, for somehow having influenced or ‘fixed’ the results.

However, Chael Sonnen does not think these theories should be paid much heed since most fighters have similar reactions to them testing positive. What ‘Uncle Chael’ was interested in was a much more pertinent question.

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest Boxing stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

“It’ll always be the same story, it’ll always be that over and over again. And the bigger issue right now is not between Garcia and Haney and what, if anything, did they have in their contract. The much bigger issue right now and it is 10 to 1 is who has authority over the results that allegedly have been found. And what is the disciplinary action, if any, going to be?” he asked in a video on his YouTube channel.

via Getty

While the answer to the question is unclear at the moment, Eddie Hearn thinks things are moving in a direction that would deal a huge blow to Garcia.

Hearn thinks Garcia’s win will be overturned

Eddie Hearn and the rest of the Devin Haney camp, predictably, want the nightmarish loss to Ryan Garcia (which saw ‘Dream’ be knocked down at least three times) to be overturned to a no-contest. This, of course, is a standard practice in the combat sports world, where a positive drug test by the winner often leads to the win being overturned since, in Hearn’s words, ‘the fight hasn’t happened on fair stakes.” And this seems increasingly likely as not only did Garcia fail the drug tests, but also came in three pounds over the super lightweight limit.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

“Devin Haney’s side are distraught, angry and of course wants this bout to be a no-contest which is very likely I would say,” Hearn said in a recent interview. Speaking about what Garcia can expect in the near future as he tries to clear his name, Hearn felt that the California native would have to “go through a nightmare” to try and clear his name.

“I don’t know Ryan Garcia, I have no idea if he’s cheated or not. But as I said, in this situation, I’ve said it before, guilty until proven innocent, and he’s gonna have to go through his hearings. I don’t know if he’s going to have the resilience to go through this process because I’ve seen it break people,” he added.

And Hearn would know a thing or two about a fighter having to go through hell to get their test overturned, having been on the other side just recently with Conor Benn. The first thing Garcia can do is to demand that his B Sample be tested. Drug testing officials take two urine and/or blood sample from fighters, one is the A Sample, which is tested first and a B Sample, which an athlete can demand be tested if the A sample comes back positive for a banned substance.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

While this would be the logical next step for Garcia, two things bear remembering. One, it is unheard of for the results of the B sample to not correlate to the results of the primary sample. Plus, Garcia, on a conspiracy tour, has already claimed that since “they” have tainted his A sample, why wouldn’t “they” have tainted his B sample too?

What are your thoughts on the whole affair? Is Garcia being treated fairly? Let us know in the comments below.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Kanishk Thakur

1,159Articles

One take at a time

Kanishk Thakur is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. A seasoned writer with about 5 years of professional writing experience, he has expertly covered the heated rivalries in the fight game and delivered meticulous reports of ‘athlete payouts’ here at ES. Additionally, he also unravels stories that occur outside the cage, in fighters’ lives.
Show More>

Edited by:

Yeswanth Praveen