Ryan Garcia rubbed the wrong way by accusations from Devin Haney
Since their amateur days in the sport, Ryan “King Ry” Garcia (21-0, 18 KO’s) and WBC world lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (26-0, 15 KO’s) have shared a rivalry. While few, if any, would describe it as bitter, they certainly have been pitted against one another numerous times over the years. Sadly, this on-going competition has not been realized in the professional boxing ring. Garcia has had the opportunity to duel with Haney. In fact, at one point he was his official mandatory challenger. Despite the strategic positioning however, Garcia decided to go in another direction.
Yet, while they might not be angling for a fight at the present moment, their rivalry is thriving like never before. The coals of this feud were recently raked when Haney publicly stated his belief that the whole team working with Saul “Canelo’ Alvarez’s lead trainer, Eddy Reynoso, was dirty by association. Devin Haney made this claim when WBC super featherweight Oscar Valdez popped dirty for PED’s. He was the fourth fighter associated with Reynoso to be caught with unlawful blood pumping through his veins.
DON’T SLING STONES
Given that Garcia is also trained by Reynoso, it’s easy to deduce why King Ry was so miffed at the comments. So, when asked in a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, Garcia was only too happy to share his two cents on the matter.
“I never even responded to tweets for a long time. And then, when I seen that, it really rubbed me the wrong way. You know you can’t do that, that’s just disrespectful, one, and two, it’s just unethical and it’s just bad all around. So, he is dumb for that, I felt like slapping him in the face!”
According to Garcia’s logic, he could point fingers at members of Haney’s current team.
“If anything, he works with Victor Conte! I mean we could speculate all we want, but like I said, I wouldn’t do that. I’m just saying you can put two and two together there, you know SNAC. Have I ever even come close to saying that? No! You know, let him do his thing.”
TRUE EQUIVALENTS?
In his offered example, Ryan Garcia was referring to Haney’s strength and condition advisor, Victor Conte. Back in 2005, Conte pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to distribute steroids. The infamous nutrition guru served jail time and house arrest for his transgressions. Since paying his debt, Conte has become an extreme advocate of cleaning up the sport of boxing.
Along with advancing that agenda, Conte has created the SNAC training facilities which has become wildly popular with many of the sport’s most popular fighters. Also, since serving his time, Conte has not been involved or associated with any further controversies or illegal activities. That’s a huge reason why King Ry’s comparison is not exactly apples to apples.
Sure, Conte got caught with his hand in the cookie jar but that was going on twenty years ago. Reynoso’s fighters are consistently getting busted, presently. And the fact that they all throw up their hands and feign ignorance doesn’t help the perception as the list continues to lengthen. Just as it was very fishy how Valdez attempted to blame an herbal tea while at the same time not presenting said tea to VADA for further testing.
It was also a bad look that Valdez claimed to know nothing of predicament or how he got there. This is, again, compounded by the fact that he is the fourth fighter associated with Reynoso to pop dirty. At that point, the whole team should be acutely aware of the PED’s protocol. Said differently, if three people in your office became deathly ill after eating at the work cafeteria, you would think that one would be more mindful about what they consume at work. Especially when millions of dollars are on the line!
By: Bakari Simpson
