Ryan Garcia has seemingly confirmed that his B-sample is positive for the banned substance Ostarine after he failed two drug tests in April.
On 20 April, Garcia dropped Devin Haney three times en route to a shock decision win, but he was ineligible to dethrone the WBC super-lightweight champion after missing weight earlier in the week.
It was later revealed that Garcia had failed two drug tests before the bout in Brooklyn – one on 19 April and one on fight night. The tests were carried out by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada).
The boxing world had been waiting for the B-sample from Garcia’s tests, and the 25-year-old seemed to confirm on Thursday (23 May) that the sample was positive for Ostarine.
“Lets go we positive,” Garcia tweeted. “Positive vibes bruh. Yess so happy.” In a tongue-in-cheek follow-up post, the American wrote: “I F***ING LOVE STERIODS [sic].” He added: “I don’t care I’ll never make money again with boxing. Your loss not mine.”
Garcia has since deleted the posts. The Independent has contacted Vada for comment, as well as Golden Boy Promotions, which represents the boxer.
Garcia’s legal team then sent a statement that read: “Ryan Garcia is committed to clean and fair competition and has never intentionally used any banned substance. Soon after being notified of his positive test, Ryan voluntarily had his hair collected and shipped to Dr Pascal Kintz, the foremost expert in toxicology and hair-sample analysis. The results of Ryan’s hair sample came back negative.
“This is consistent with contamination and demonstrably proves that Ryan had not ingested Ostarine over a period of time — the only way he would have had any advantage whatsoever in the ring. Ryan has voluntarily submitted to tests throughout his career, which have always shown negative results. He also tested negative multiple times leading up to the fight against Haney.
“All of these factors, combined with his ultra-low levels from samples taken on April 19th and 20th (in the billionth of a gram range), point to Ryan being a victim of supplement contamination and never receiving any performance enhancing benefit from the microscopic amounts in his system.
“We are certain that one of the natural supplements Ryan was using in the lead up to the fight will prove to be contaminated and are in the process of testing the supplements to determine the exact source.”
Ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator (Sarm), is used to increase muscle growth. Specifically, Sarms can improve lean body mass by helping to regulate body fat.
Prior to fighting Garcia, Haney was unbeaten as a professional. The pair also fought six times as amateurs, each winning three of those bouts.
