Former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr has offered his verdict on the shocking news of Ryan Garcia’s positive drugs test, adding a further asterisk to his career best win over Devin Haney that could see the result of the contest overturned and ruled as a no-contest.
To say that Garcia acted erratic and out of character during the build-up is an understatement, smoking marijuana, faking his own death and drinking a ‘beer’ on the scales at the weigh-in – on which he weighed in overweight and thus lost the chance to challenge for Haney’s world titles – and then celebrated.
However, come fight night it seemed as though Garcia had simply been playing possum, delivering a phenomenal beatdown onto undefeated WBC champion Haney.
Garcia rocked Haney in the opening round of the affair and appeared to have him hurt throughout the affair, scoring three knockdowns on his way to a majority-decision win. Although, it has been confirmed that Garcia has tested positive for a banned substance named ‘Ostarine’ both on the day of the weigh-in and the day of the fight.
In an interview with Boxing Social, Kambosos – who lost his belts to Haney and was again unsuccessful in their rematch – explained his sympathy for his former opponent and doubted there be any chance of the test result being false.
“Excuse my French, but it is f***ing crazy. We have got one of Haney’s team here – Ramon Matthews Jr. – who is one of his pad guys, he couldn’t be believe it. He just broke the news to us and then I have gone on social media and Twitter and seen it come from everywhere.
“Obviously, Ryan has come out and said that it has come from all of these ‘higher-ups’ and ‘elites’ and whatever else is trying to play these games. I know VADA and the team at VADA, they are very thorough with everything that they do.
“When a test goes through, and it is going to VADA – then it is going to VADA. It ain’t going to get mixed up. If he has cheated, he is a piece of s**t. I have liked Ryan, I have respected Ryan, I did not see him coming and beating a guy like Devin Haney, but he did and he shocked the world.
“If this is all true – you are a piece of s**t. This sport is dangerous enough and you saw Devin get hurt in that fight, I thought that he was fighting on instinct from the first-round [onwards] after he got cracked. For him to do the twelve rounds and get dropped and keep coming, that just shows the warrior that he is.”
Eddie Hearn has revealed that Haney is seeking a no-contest verdict in light of the test result, potentially reinstating his undefeated record.
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