Promoter Eddie Hearn has offered his thoughts on Ryan Garcia’s failed drug test for his recent bout against Devin Haney.
The 25-year-old Garcia 25-1 (20) challenged WBC junior welterweight champion Haney 31-1 (15) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on April 20.
After failing to make weight by 3.2-pounds, Garcia dropped Haney, also 25, three times to win via majority decision.
If the weight breech wasn’t enough to put an asterisk next to his win, Garcia recorded a positive result to banned substance ostarine in a test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) the day before the fight.
Matchroom Boxing boss Hearn, who has been working with Haney, cautioned against rushing to judge Garcia after his own boxer Conor Benn failed a drugs test two years ago that resulted in a legal quagmire.
“I woke up to missed calls from Devin and a text saying ‘Call me ASAP’ and spoke to him and he’s devastated because he’s obviously it’s a bit very difficult for him to overcome the loss, but particularly difficult now to take the loss when he was 3 1⁄2 pounds over and a loss that he fought a man who had performance enhancing drugs in his system,” Hearn revealed.
“I believe everybody should have the right to protest their innocence. Unfortunately in this situation it’s guilty until proven innocent — I’ve been there, right. But one thing we 100% know in this situation is that when he entered the ring he had performance enhancing drugs in his system.
“So that’s incredibly difficult for Devin Haney to take. And the fight will become a no contest whether it was intentional or not intentional, it was still in him when he fought. It’s not fair but every fighter deserves the opportunity and now it’s a tough fight.
“Ryan has now got to get himself together with Oscar and Golden Boy and they’ve got to take this on. I’ve been there, I’ve done it for two years, I’m still going because I believe in my fighter. If they believe in Ryan Garcia they’ll have to take that fight with him.”
Haney is not the forgive and forget type.
“During the build-up, we’ve seen a lot of interesting things from him. We’ve seen his character, we’ve seen the guy cheat, we’ve seen the person that he is,” Haney said on ESPN’s SportCenter Thursday.
“I don’t see myself ever getting back in the ring [with him], but I’m a fighter speaking right now about how I feel. We never know what the future holds. As of right now, it wouldn’t be a fight I would entertain.
“As I said, this guy showed his character. He showed that he would do anything to win, including cheat; that’s just reality. Boxing is just a sport at the end of the day. He put my life in jeopardy. So now it’s deeper than boxing with me.
“He could’ve done some real dangerous things to me that night.”