VADA, B-Sample & Hair Sample Analysis: The Ryan Garcia Story

Garcia was on top of the world, rubbing the victory in Haney’s face as much as possible. On the other hand, Haney was nowhere to be found, and fans started to believe he wasn’t taking the loss well. During the Canelo Alvarez vs Jaime Munguia fight week, a test result came back positive from VADA, stating that Garcia was found to have three different substances in his system that weren’t legal. A few days later, the test was corrected concerning the other substances, but the Ostarine remained the substance in his system.

Garcia would then point to the relationship Haney has with Victor Conte, who is closely tied to VADA and is also Haney’s sponsor with his company SNAC, as the reason he popped positive for a Performance-Enhancing Drug (PED). Garcia then consulted with his team and asked for the sealed B-Sample to be tested. May 22 was the day they would open the sample and test it to see if what was found in the first test matched the B-sample.

B-Sample Comes Back Positive As Well

Earlier today, Dan Rafael reported that the results from the B-Sample were also positive for Ostarine. Rafael posted on X, “BREAKING: Ryan Garcia’s B-sample results were returned Thursday a.m., 1 day after being opened. I have the lab reports & the B-samples, as expected, matched A-samples-both are positive for the banned PED Ostarine related to VADA tests the day before & after Haney fight.”

Shortly after that X post caught fire on social media, Garcia’s representatives would send out the following email:

“Ryan Garcia is committed to clean and fair competition and has never intentionally used any banned substance. Soon after being notified of his positive test, Ryan voluntarily had his hair collected and shipped to Dr. Pascal Kintz, the foremost expert in toxicology and hair-sample analysis. The results of Ryan’s hair sample came back negative. This is consistent with contamination and demonstrably proves that Ryan had not ingested Ostarine over a period of time — the only way he would have had any advantage whatsoever in the ring.

Ryan has voluntarily submitted to tests throughout his career, which have always shown negative results. He also tested negative multiple times leading up to the fight against Haney. All of these factors, combined with his ultra-low levels from samples taken on April 19th and 20th (in the billionth of a gram range), point to Ryan being a victim of supplement contamination and never receiving any performance-enhancing benefit from the microscopic amounts in his system. We are certain that one of the natural supplements Ryan was using in the lead up to the fight will prove to be contaminated and are in the process of testing the supplements to determine the exact source.”

The email cited that a hair sample was submitted for testing and returned negative for PEDs. FightsATW asked for the actual laboratory results to support the statements made in the email. The response was the following:

“We cannot share documentation at this time. These results will be part of a comprehensive, formal report of findings that Paul Greene will submit at a later stage.”

This doesn’t help the immediate situation as Garcia’s team is asking for the public to take their word for it without any source documents. That’s asking a lot, especially when people are always asking for “receipts” to validate anything said in a public forum. Despite how bad this looks for Garcia, Golden Boy Promotions supports him and released a statement concerning the situation.

“The fact that Ostarine wasn’t present in Ryan’s hair and nail samples – combined with his multiple negative tests in the run up to his victory over Devin Haney — conclusively prove that he received no benefit from any PED and that supplement contamination is the likely culprit of his adverse VADA tests. As noted, when the initial tests emerged, we believe Ryan – and we continue to today.”

What’s Next?

Garcia and his team will put together a report to present to the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), which now has to decide Garcia’s status as a fighter and if there will be a change in the outcome of the April 20 fight. FightsATW was told that NYSAC has up to ten days to make that decision, but with Garcia’s team putting together a response, it looks like it will take at least a month.

Until then, Garcia hasn’t made any serious comments about his potential next opponent, but he has called out everyone from Errol Spence Jr to Sean O’Malley. Whatever happens with this whole situation, the rematch with Haney will become the biggest fight that can be made. If there is enough money to be made in boxing, the fight will happen. Let’s see how this all plays out. The legend of Ryan Garcia continues.