Prograis says Garcia ‘cheated,’ just doesn’t think PED played big factor in Haney fight

by Keith Idec

Regis Prograis prefaced his assessment of Ryan Garcia’s performance-enhancing drug ordeal by stressing he understands that the besmirched star “cheated” and that using ostarine is “illegal.”

The former WBA/WBC 140-pound doesn’t think, though, that Garcia’s use of a banned substance had nearly as much impact on the outcome of his overturned victory versus Devin Haney as Haney has stated. Haney, the former undisputed lightweight champ, even sued Garcia late last month because his rival tested positive for ostarine after their 12-round welterweight fight April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, sought damages for battery, breach of contract and fraud, according to court documents.

The New York State Athletic Commission changed the result of their fight from a majority-decision win for Garcia to a no-contest. The NYSAC also suspended Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) for one year and fined him more than $1 million following a fight in which he hurt Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) numerous times, scored three knockdowns – one apiece in the seventh, 10^th and 11^th rounds – and won their DAZN Pay-Per-view main event on two scorecards.

Garcia, 26, has paid a steep price for having a banned substance in his system. Prograis, whom Haney dominated in Haney’s previous appearance, nonetheless doesn’t think Garcia gained much of an advantage from an enhancer he suspects that the Victorville, California native probably used to lose weight.

The contracted limit for what was supposed to be a junior welterweight title fight was 140 pounds, which Haney met. Garcia officially weighed 143½ pounds, but Haney didn’t make him weigh in again and instead accepted a financial penalty for Garcia’s unprofessionalism.

“I don’t really think that little, small percentage [of ostarine] would get you beat like that – getting dropped three times, just getting totally demolished,” Prograis told Boxing News. “I don’t think that really did anything too much. It’s still like a circus going on, because I saw people saying Eddie [Hearn, then Haney’s promoter] say he didn’t test positive this day, but then he did test positive this day. So, that means it was probably something going on with the weight.

“He was probably struggling with the weight, so that was something he took for the weight. Still, it’s illegal, obviously. But I just don’t think it would play that much of a factor, really. But he still cheated and he still should be punished. It’s just, at the end of the day, I don’t think it played that much of a factor.”

Garcia, who had a point deducted by referee Harvey Dock for hitting Haney on a break in the seventh round, defeated Haney according to judges Eric Marlinski (114-110) and Robin Taylor (115-109). Judge Max De Luca scored Garcia-Haney a draw, 112-112.

Four months earlier, Haney dropped Prograis in the third round and shut him out by the same score, 120-107, on the cards of judges Rey Danesco, Mike Ross and Fernando Villarreal. Prograis (29-2, 24 KOs) will fight for the first time since Haney’s easy win against him on December 9 at Chase Center in San Francisco on Saturday night, when the New Orleans native will encounter English southpaw Jack Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs) in a 12-rounder at Co-op Live Arena in Manchester (DAZN; 7 p.m. GMT; 2 p.m. ET).

“I don’t think the way [Haney] beat me made him overlook [Garcia],” Prograis said. “I think he just knew him for a long time. Especially with all the stuff that was going on in the press conferences, I think that he maybe overlooked him. He got more confidence from that, whether he overlooked him or not. In the press conferences, I didn’t know what was going on.

“Ryan was going crazy. He was saying all kinds of stuff, so nobody knew what was happening in that press conference. It was like he was drinking, he was high, he was smoking. So, I mean, I would think the same thing. ‘Sh*t, he doing all this stuff. He going crazy. I’mma beat him easily.’ So, maybe he thought like that because of all the stuff that was going on in the press conference.”