When Ryan García went from virtual fans to the pressure of winning in professional sports, he lost his way and ended up getting into trouble.
Boxing history will remember Ryan Garcia with José José’s legendary song ‘What was not, will not be’. Ryan was expected to be an idol of Mexican-American boxing, even with some expectations of becoming a new Canelo Alvarezbut he ended his participation in professional sports in the style of Julio César Chávez Jr: Troubled and retired, for now…
Ryan, of Mexican grandparents and born in Victorville, California, held the interim lightweight title of the World Boxing Council (WBC) in 2021, and to his credit will have victories over Devin Haney (in the midst of controversy) and the Olympic champion Luke Campbell.
Furthermore, his enormous presence on social networks, with millions of followers, generated the expectation that he could become the influencer that boxing needed to attract a young audience, renew the traditional followers of this sport and be a winner in the ring. It neither was, nor does it seem that it will be.
Ryan showed that real life is different from the virtuality of the networks and now he settles for an unclear message knowing that his future was no longer even in his hands after being suspended for a year by the New York Athletic Commission for the positive result. had in an anti-doping test, carried out the day before the fight against Haney, for the substance Ostarine.
Ryan, who has 20 knockouts in 24 wins, generated expectations as he won fights and demonstrated a great ability to break traditions to communicate, until the reality of boxing showed him reality. In April of last year he lost by knockout against Gervonta Davis and then regained some confidence by defeating Oscar Duarte in December.
The fight last April, against Devin Haney, was confirmation of his category. And he ended up in the worst scenario: he did not give the agreed weight at 140 pounds and reached an agreement in which Haney received 600 thousand dollars from García’s purse in exchange for carrying out the fight.
In the ring, Ryan surprisingly defeated Haney and seemed to vindicate some of the doubts he had generated; but now the fight has been officially declared ‘No contest’. He was in that situation until it became known about doping with Ostarine, an anabolic agent that helps improve muscle mass and is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The boxer’s legal team has argued that it entered his body due to contamination of the supplement.
And that wasn’t all, Ryan also acknowledged that before his fight with Haney he had consumed alcohol and smoked marijuana. Even during the weigh-in in which he did not give the agreed range he pretended to drink a beer. Conspicuous as a good influencer, but not very effective as a boxer.
To the list we must add his publications on social networks and the controversial departure from Team Canelo when it was still believed that he was the possible successor of Saúl Álvarez. But it didn’t happen. Today, with everything and his millions of followers on Instagram, Ryan looks more like Chávez Jr than Canelo.
