As Invoice Haney sees it, the continuing fall from grace of Ryan Garcia has been essentially the most disillusioning flip he’s ever witnessed in boxing.
“We have to assist the fighters. We have to tackle this,” Haney informed BoxingScene in an early morning telephone name following Garcia’s Saturday arrest in Beverly Hills, Calif., on suspicion of felony vandalism at a lavish resort.
“Ryan Garcia has constantly stated he’s on one thing. We’ve obtained to imagine him now, proper? I can see what Ryan goes by way of. His workforce is failing on him.”
Haney, the daddy, supervisor and coach of the previously unbeaten WBC 140-pound champion Devin Haney, whom Garcia knocked down 3 times and defeated by majority resolution April 20 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Middle, says he’s been left astounded by the occasions surrounding the battle.
The bout was preceded by erratic habits from Southern California’s Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs), who weighed in a staggering three-plus kilos over the load restrict and misplaced his capability to win the belt, then reportedly paid Devin Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) a $1.5 million positive for the transgression.
Though he repeatedly rocked Haney with laborious lefts, pulling down the champion 3 times, Garcia submitted two optimistic drug assessments for the banned performance-enhancing substance Ostarine, with the “B” samples confirming the outcomes.
He awaits a probable severe sanction from the New York State Athletic Fee, together with a suspension, positive and the altering of his victory to a no-contest.
Lately, Garcia introduced his mom, Lisa, is battling most cancers.
In a Sunday assertion, Garcia’s legal professional wrote, “Ryan has been open about his struggles with psychological well being over time and right now he’s coping with an intense emotional burden.”
Hours earlier than Garcia’s arrest, he complained he had not obtained the pay-per-view portion of his purse from his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, and its streaming companion, DAZN. Devin Haney echoed that on “X.”
To which, Golden Boy publicists responded with a proper assertion pointing the fighters away from social media and to the positive factors of their contracts.
Minutes later, information broke of Garcia’s arrest.
“Let everybody check out it. Put it underneath a microscope,” Invoice Haney stated. “Am I involved about (Garcia). In fact. Very a lot so.”
Haney stated he wonders who else is.
“Once I see De La Hoya thrust (Garcia) to a spot he’s not deserving – blowing off preventing for the belt, not caring concerning the drug testing or the transparency he owes Devin Haney – he’s doing so to the detriment of boxing,” Invoice Haney stated. “Is boxing going to be this corrupt bullsh*t?
“Mother and father have to know this reality earlier than sending their youngsters to this sport. It’s a corrupt enterprise. Steer clear of it.”
Garcia’s case is clearly private to the elder Haney, and it strikes a deeper chord as a result of he’s lower than 72 hours away from receiving the supervisor of the yr award from the Boxing Writers Assn. of America for his son’s 2023 marketing campaign as an undisputed light-weight champion and new 140-pound belt-holder.
Invoice Haney introduced his son to boxing after enduring a jail keep for drug trafficking.
“I wished to do the correct factor for as soon as in my life – overwork, overdeliver,” Invoice Haney stated. “However folks convey the road mentality I as soon as lived by way of to boxing. I hear, ‘Boxing is cool.’ All the things will not be cool.”
He took purpose at Garcia’s father, Henry, whom Invoice Haney has beforehand stated is extra involved about his son’s earnings than his well-being.
“The place are you now? You need to spin this s**t?” Haney requested. “They’re on some bulls**t. Pay attention, you’re speaking to an ex-professional bulls**ter. That’s why I can come right here and say this.”
Haney needs extra involvement from promoters, from the worldwide sanctioning our bodies and maybe by the formation of a world physique to use year-round, Olympic-style drug testing and the kind of authority that has been missing within the Garcia matter.
“It’s failing now. Nobody who you clarify the boxing enterprise to says, ‘Oh, that’s nice,’” Haney stated. “You get into this sport within the first place as a minority in life, after which you need to get by way of all this bulls**t?”
The Haneys have sought to do issues in another way, negotiating fight-by-fight preparations with promoters and searching for to keep up independence.
Shedding to Garcia introduced them head to head with the game’s hazardous loopholes.
“This s**t is worse than something. If we are able to’t administer an actual drug-testing program with tooth, we are able to’t management the present,” Invoice Haney stated. “We are able to’t do fighters like this, man. And if I’m supervisor of the yr, I would like to talk to this.
“I’m placing my foot down as a person, and as a father.”
Invoice Haney expressed hope within the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s His Excellency Turki Alalshikh within the sport. Along with staging the undisputed heavyweight championship in his nation, Alalshikh is bringing a stacked card to the U.S. Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.
“I need to know he’s coming in to do one thing completely different,” Invoice Haney stated. “The fighters arise there getting pummeled by one another, however they haven’t any medical or dental protection. What are the promoters doing for them?
“These are prime years for these guys. They’re not assured longevity and so they get f**ked once they’re in it, manipulated far and wide. That’s horrible.”
