Devin Haney has his undefeated record back, but he’s still not satisfied with the Ryan Garcia situation.
When Haney and Garcia stepped into the ring to box one another this past April, Garcia originally walked out with an exciting majority decision win. However, the bout will forever be shrouded in controversy for both the preceding and proceeding circumstances.
Garcia behaved erratically in the lead-up to the fight, displaying bizarre behavior on his social media and then later coming in 3.2 pounds over the limit for the bout, disqualifying himself from being able to win Haney’s super lightweight title. He defeated Haney on the cards, but the bout was officially overturned to a no-contest as part of the penalty handed down by the New York State Athletic Commission for Garcia failing two post-fight drug tests. Garcia also received a one-year suspension from boxing.
Were it up to Haney, Garcia wouldn’t be allowed back at all.
“I don’t think cheating should be in the sport of boxing,” Haney said on The MMA Hour. “If I felt that, shit, I’d be cheating myself. If you get caught cheating, I think you should be banned. For life. Because we literally we go in and put our life on the line each time we step in that ring and we see guys get killed in the ring.
“He must have felt something, because of all his fights, he never tested dirty, right? But against me, he did. It’s no coincidence. He must obviously have felt the threat from me and all of a sudden he’s acting like we’ve never seen him acting before. He was covering his ass just in case he lost and he was going to play the crazy role.”
Since the news broke of Garcia’s positive drug tests on May 1, the boxer’s team has maintained that he is the victim of a tainted supplement. In a statement, they wrote that samples from two supplements tested by the Voluntari Anti-Doping Agency “returned positive for ostarine contamination,” and that Garcia is innocent. Garcia responded to his suspension by following up on a previous retirement tweet and suggesting he might make a move to compete in the UFC.
Garcia’s antics aren’t the slightest bit amusing to Haney, who has no interest in burying the hatched with his rival even though he claims Garcia has reached out to him.
“He be messaging me on Instagram and shit like that, trying to be cool,” Haney said. “I don’t know, we all know it’s something odd for him feel like it’s cool for him to message me. None of that is going on. For the shit that he did, I want to make him pay for the shit that he did in the ring, out the ring, however.”
With the April 20 bout now officially a no-contest, Haney saw his record restored to 31-0. He is currently on his own hiatus, having recently tweeted that he may not fight again until 2026, when a rematch with Garcia could happen.
First things first, Haney plans to sue Garcia for entering their bout with what he believes was intent to cheat the system.
“Like I said, this whole thing has cost me,” Haney said. “I signed up for a fair fight. I signed a contract for a fair fight where we do drug testing, where we go in and I’m clean and he’s clean, and that wasn’t the case. So like I said, I he must pay for that. When you sign the contract, when he said he’s going to be clean going into the fight and I’m going to be clean, there ain’t going to be nothing in my system, there ain’t going to be nothing in his system, and he didn’t hold up his bargain. He didn’t hold up on his side of that. So he will pay.
“He will pay in the ring. I want to get it back in blood in the ring, but also outside the ring. I’m still a businessman at the end of the day and this is a business.”
