Despite the ongoing process of Ryan Garcia’s performance-enhancing drug (PED) case, recent reports indicate the attorney of Devin Haney is attempting to see the April 20th match be ruled as a win for Haney by disqualifying Garcia, suggesting Haney’s team is distrustful or impatient of the results of Garcia’s B-samples will provide. The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) was contacted by Haney’s attorney to be able to facilitate the immediate change of the majority decision (MD) result that had been ruled in favor of Garcia.
According to BoxingScene, Devin Haney’s (31-1, 15 KO’s) attorney, Pat English, wrote an eight-page letter to NYSAC where he attempted to justify his attempts to rule the match a win for Haney by disqualification on behalf of his client.
“There is a blemish on Mr. Haney’s record. He was placed in an unsafe fight under NYSAC jurisdiction,” English wrote in a letter obtained by BoxingScene. “The bout was made a mockery and in addition to the PED use and prohibited use of IV’s, after the bout, Mr. Garcia admitted that missing weight was a tactic to give him an unfair advantage.
“As there was no second-day weigh in required by the commission, thus it is impossible to know what he weighed on fight night. This is why, after setting forth the facts below we request that Mr. Garcia be disqualified, which is more fitting than a no-contest in this situation.“
The most notable part of this letter details that it was unknown how much Garcia actually weighed during the fight as there was no second-day weigh-in; which is usually a common occurrence for title fights. While there did seem an agreement in place between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia for the latter to come in overweight, under the stipulation of Garcia paying Haney $500.000 per pound he was overweight, the agreement was regarded as a handshake agreement not necessarily bound law―and neither party has yet substantiated on whether this agreement was upheld or not.
In essence, the handshake agreement had nothing to do with the fact the NYSAC seems to now have neglected a vital and regular part of title bouts by not staging a second-day weigh-in, despite Garcia coming in overweight during the first weigh-in. Despite not holding a second weigh-in session, the NYSAC ruled the super lightweight bout a non-title bout by barring Haney’s WBC title from being put on the line.
Despite the initial argument addressing NYSAC’s inability to hold a second weigh-in, Pat English notably omitted any mention of the handshake agreement between Haney and Garcia, and further refused to hold NYSAC culpable for not staging another weigh-in session; which could hold weight depending on whether both parties agreed on the second-day weigh-in not commencing.
“After the bout, Garcia stated publicly that he had lied and he was overweight in order to get a competitive advantage over Haney,” English continued in his letter. “Had Garcia not lied about his purpose, Haney would not have proceeded with the bout against him and/or would have taken steps to protect himself.”
Irrespective of why Ryan Garcia (25-1, 20 KO’s) came in overweight, Devin Haney was witnessed to have no issues in Garcia missing weight as he had been the one to stipulate to be paid $500.000 per pound of missed weight.
English’ next argument pertained to the two urine samples that tested positive for Ostarine; with the letter also including a link to a YouTube video depicting Garcia taking an unknown fluid through an IV.
“Representatives of Mr. Garcia have publicly suggested that the Ostarine was found in trace amounts,” The letter stated. “In fact, while there are a couple of Commissions in the United States which permit trace amounts of Ostarine [and New York, WADA and VADA are not among them], the samples quantities [were] 35 to 60 times the amount considered in those jurisdictions to be trace amounts.
“Adding insult to the commission and to the sport of boxing, Mr. Garcia has alleged that he was ‘high as f*** during’ his bout with Mr. Haney. This very clearly brings disrepute on the sport of boxing and, by derivation, on the New York State Athletic Commission.”
The above argument aims to justify a disqualification for Ryan Garcia due to the positive tests, but fails to take into account that the PED case is still ongoing; with Garcia having reportedly requested for his B-samples to be tested on May 22nd―which will help determine whether there was actually Ostarine within Garcia’s system. Therefore, if the B-samples for Ostarine come in with negative results, English’ entire argument would no longer hold any weight as it would suggest Garcia did not take any Ostarine.
These facts were also avoided during Pat English’ closing statement; which narrowed down on Garcia missing weight, the use of an IV by Garcia according to a YouTube video, and the nature of Ostarine as a banned substance in athletic sports.
“Ostarine is specifically listed as a prohibited performance enhancing drug on the Commission website,” English wrote in the conclusion of his letter. “An IV is expressly prohibited. Intentionally coming in overweight is a violation.
“In this context, the commission has full authority to issue a disqualification. That would change the bout to a win for Mr. Haney by disqualification. On behalf of Mr. Haney, we request that change in addition to such suspension as deemed appropriate by the commission.”
While there could be a case for Devin Haney winning his April 20th match against Ryan Garcia by disqualification due to the aforementioned violation of Garcia missing weight on purpose, it will be considered a controversial move by NYSAC given the handshake agreement between him and Haney that occurred during their pre-fight presser.
The decision to use Garcia’s pending PED case against him also appears premature, as the results of Garcia’s B-samples still have to be determined in order to effectively argue that Garcia intentionally used PEDs.
