By: Sean Crose
It’s being reported the Voluntary Anti Doping Association (VADA) has found that Ryan Garcia tested positive for the banned substance Otariine. According to Dan Rafael, who broke the news, two tests – both of which showed the Performance Enhancing Drug in Garcia’s system – were collected on the 19th of April, the day before Garcia’s shocking victory over Devin Haney, and after the Haney fight on April 20th.
The National Library of Medicine writes that Otariine “is used as a physical performance-enhancing agent.” According to The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy the drug’s “effective nature in building quick muscle mass has made it quite infamous in the bodybuilding industry. It is also known to improve testosterone and regulate body fat levels in the body.”
Haney’s father Bill, is reportedly deeply unhappy with this latest development. “You trying to hurt my baby,” Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix quotes the elder Haney as saying. “We played it fair. We didn’t do it like that. Fuck boxing, this is some bullshit. I came from the streets. You scared of Devin on a level playing field. I feel fucked up over this. If you can brag about doing it, you shouldn’t be on drugs.”
For his own part, Garcia has declared his innocence. “Everybody knows that I don’t cheat,” he said in a social media post. “What can I say? Why didn’t they come out with this before the fight if they found it before? Why would they let me step in the ring as a cheater?”
“I don’t even know where to get steroids,” he added. “I barely take supplements.”