Ryan Garcia Faces Rough Road After Suspension

Ryan Garcia likes to call himself “Blessed, Highly Favored,” in reference to that godawful song he released a few months back.

And that may be true in many areas of his life. He really has led a “blessed” life online, falling ass-backwards into stacks of cash as an unhinged dullard whose only bankable attributes are young boy “cuteness” and a lack of self-awareness.

In boxing, too, Garcia has led a charmed life– “Blessed” with elite-level physical attributes and “Highly Favored” in the way his superstar potential has facilitated a direct path to main stage opportunities.

But the “Blessedness” and “Highly-Favoredness” in the boxing world may have come to an end.

No, the end isn’t going to come directly as a result of his dirty PEDs test following the April 20 Devin Haney bout or the subsequent one-year suspension handed down to him by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC). Boxing and its fandom have forgiven far worse.

What WILL put Garcia in a tough spot, though, is the fallout from AFTER his suspension is over and how all future big-ticket opposition will deal with him from that point forward.

Expect any future high-end opponent with sound management and any degree of leverage to demand a short leash on Garcia. They’ll be unforgiving when it comes to the weight-manipulation antics he pulled on an over-confident Team Haney and insistent upon some tough guardrails to guarantee an even playing field.

Everyone will be demanding checks on Garcia’s weight and his clean fighter status. Some may even turn those checks into contractual handicaps to their own benefit.

The negotiation chess playing as already begun, six months before Garcia is even legally cleared to return to the ring.

Devin Haney’s father/manager Bill Haney, who is part of a lawsuit filed against Garcia by his son, recently offered to have Devin sign on to a rematch, under the condition that Garcia enroll in a stringent and immediate VADA drug testing program.

“Ryan, you can’t win a championship belt, so you wrap a waist belt around your arm and shoot Ostarine instead? The fans and the sport deserve better than your excuses,” Haney said via social media. “If you’re so confident you didn’t cheat, show us the receipts and prove it. You’ve quit before, so nothing surprises me about you. Devin never, ever quits. We’re not letting this slide.”

Garcia eventually turned down the request.

“You have to be dumb if you think ima listen to what bill Haney request,” Garcia wrote via Twitter/X. “First of all they are suing me. Second of all I don’t need them at all. LMAO.”

But Garcia will eventually need somebody to be one-half of a big fight. And he’s going to find everybody singing a similar tune.

In a recent appearance on the “It Is What It Is” podcast, current WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez, who had been tied to a possible Garcia bout, expressed his concern for Garcia’s weight manipulation and focused on his own PEDs concerns when it comes to the Victorville, California native.

“Ryan says catchweight, but I don’t know catchweight. We can go to 147 and fight for a belt, I deal with world titles. One thing, though, about me – USADA. United States Anti-Doping Agency. Even if I gotta pay out of pocket.”

Expect this pattern to continue as Garcia explores any and all future bouts.

And, worst of all for “King Ryan,” he won’t really have the leverage to shrug off these demands as they are stacked in front of possible big-ticket bouts.

Garcia’s own promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, in an effort to “burn” Bill Haney on his weekly “Clapback Thursday” Instagram feature, revealed that the Garcia-Haney fight only generated 300K pay-per-view buys and was a financial flop.

That “burn” likely cost Garcia the upper hand in any future negotiations.

A Ryan Garcia coming off a 1.2 million-buy blockbuster with Tank Davis will have the leverage to cast aside demands made of him. A Ryan Garcia coming off a controversy-filled commercial flop that should’ve benefited from a ton of mainstream coverage during the lead-up, has almost no leverage.

Can Garcia do his thing, keep winning, and keep boosting his boxing star profile despite everything facing him upon his return from suspension? Maybe. He certainly has the raw talent to do so.

It’s also quite possible that the burden of his opponents’ demands and the weight of all the scornful eyes watching over him will break down his fragile psyche and push him to easier career paths.

Stay Tuned.