Ryan Garcia Issued One-Year Suspension By NYSAC, Forfeiture Of Entire Purse From Devin Haney Fight

Ryan Garcia will spend the first year of his recently announced retirement under suspension.

The Ring has confirmed that a settlement was reached with the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) which will leave Garcia out of the ring through at least April 20, 2025. He was also fined $10,000—the maximum allowed by NYSAC—and must forfeit his entire $1,100,000 fight purse, as listed on contracts submitted to NYSAC.

The seven-figure purse will go back to Golden Boy Promotions, Garcia’s promoter. The Ring has learned that Haney will likely receive an undisclosed percentage of that sum. That amount does not include any revenue generated from their DAZN pay-per-view event, from which both Garcia and Haney alleged to have earned—but yet to receive—healthy eight-figure payouts.

Garcia is required to undergo random drug testing during that time and must produce clean samples throughout the one-year period. Failure to do so will leave him subject to a lengthier suspension than what was assigned on Thursday.

The ruling came as the 25-year-old boxer was under investigations after testing positive for the banned substance Ostarine surrounding his April 20 bout versus Devin Haney.

“The New York State Athletic Commission (Commission) has reached a settlement with Ryan Garcia following his bout on April 20th at the Barclay’s Center,” an NYSAC spokesperson told The Ring. “Under the terms of the Consent Order, Mr. Garcia is subject to the following actions:

1) his win against Mr. Devin Haney has been changed to an official “no-contest”;

2) his purse has been forfeited;

3) a fine of $10,000.00 has been imposed; and,

4) his New York State professional boxer license will be suspended until April 20, 2025, and until such time as he provides a clean urinalysis to the Commission.

“The Commission will continue to hold athletes to the highest professional standards and protect the integrity of all sports under our jurisdiction.”

Testing was contracted through Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).

Garcia was ruled as the winner via majority decision that evening at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The already tainted win after his miserable scale fail took a turn for the worse after two drug tests produced findings of Ostarine. Samples collected on April 19 after the weigh-in and April 20 post-fight revealed the banned substance.

Thursday’s verdict has rendered the fight a No-Contest. His record is now 24-1, with 20 knockouts.

Haney’s previously unblemished record is restored at 31-0, with 15 KOs and one No-Contest. He retained his WBC 140-pound title despite the initial defeat, since Garcia was also 3.2 pounds over the divisional limit.

“Thank you[to] the commission for doing the right thing & making the right decision,” Haney posted on X. “I don’t understand how [G]olden [B]oy [Promotions] is getting any money as if they took any punches. They haven’t even spoke out about this PED situation.”

Golden Boy has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

Garcia’s legal team commented on the ruling and has continued to profess its client’s innocence.

“Ryan Garcia was a victim of substance contamination, with levels measured in the billions and trillions of a gram, which provided no advantage whatsoever in the ring” Team Garcia said in a statement through a spokesperson. “Ryan, with his legal team, has resolved this issue and firmly maintains his truth: he never intentionally took any banned substance. It’s simply not in his nature.

“For many years, Ryan has voluntarily submitted to random testing, even during out-of-competition periods, and has never had any issues. He has maintained an impeccable and clean record throughout his career, significantly elevating and transcending the sport of boxing, earning respect and admiration from millions of fans worldwide.
The fans will always remember his performance against Haney as a masterclass, and that will never be erased.
Ryan will continue to elevate the sport and will be actively involved in advocating for reform. We hope future changes in our system will address issues like this one.”

The boxer’s own direct responses weren’t quite as polished.

“They took my victory away,” Garcia posted on X once news broke of the ruling. “It’s okay, I’m retired. I’ll come back in a year. I was already retired to so I’ll just come back out of retirement for a year.”

Garcia has insisted all along that the positive test results were through contaminated substances. As previously reported by The Ring, opened and used containers of Body Health Perfect Amino and NutraBIO Super Carb were submitted to the same laboratory that tested Garcia and Haney.

The lab confirmed trace amounts of Ostarine in both samples. However, the final reports did not confirm the claim of contamination given the absence of sealed containers from that same lot numbers.

Clearly, those results also failed to resonate with the New York commission.

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