Boxing star Ryan Garcia acknowledged Tuesday that it wasn’t professional to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana ahead of his April 2024 fight with Devin Haney.
Garcia posted videos on social media in the days leading up to that junior welterweight title bout – which he won via majority decision – where he was drinking at a club. He also then pretended to drink a beer at the weigh-in.
Despite Garcia’s erratic behavior, he floored Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) three times in a major upset victory. However, Garcia later tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and the result was overturned to a no contest. The 26-year-old was also suspended one year by the New York State Athletic Commission.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will end that ban with a May 2 fight vs. Rolly Romero outdoors in Times Square, the headliner of a stacked Ring Magazine triple header that includes Haney’s return vs. Jose Ramirez and Teofimo Lopez’s 140-pound title defense against Arnold Barboza Jr..
“I want to be great,” Garcia said. “I’ve always wanted to fight the best fighters in the sport. As far as my problems outside the ring, I’ve always had those problems. I don’t know who else struggles with stuff like that, but that’s just something I was struggling with.
” … I want to show my dedication to sport and just be a true professional. I admit my wrongs and I don’t want anybody to take my actions of drinking and smoking before the fight and try to think that’s a way to handle yourself as a professional. So I came here to change that and this is my first fight to get respect back and then prove everybody that it wasn’t a fluke.”
Garcia’s fight with Romero will be his first at the 147-pound limit. When he faced Haney for a 140-pound title, he was 3.2 pounds overweight. Haney, too, will move up to 147 pounds as will Ramirez (both are former 140-pound champions).
If Garcia and Haney both emerge victorious and without injury, the plan is for them to meet in a hotly anticipated rematch in October in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Haney, like Garcia, hasn’t competed since their meeting.
“At the end of the day, I fought somebody on PEDs,” said Haney, 26. “The world wants to see what Devin Haney’s going to show up, and I look to give everybody all those answers on May 2.”
“It was definitely time,” Haney added of the jump to welterweight. “My body just was maturing. One-forty was hard for me to make. I felt good for one fight, but in the second fight I didn’t feel as good.”
Source: espn.com