A B-sample requested by boxer Ryan Garcia came back positive for the banned substance Ostarine on Thursday.
Garcia, though, maintains his innocence and is now claiming that contamination caused a positive test in both his A- and B-samples prior to his fight against Devin Haney last month.
Garcia requested the B-sample be tested after his A-sample screened positive for Ostarine and Nandrolone. Further analysis of the sample earlier this month cleared Garcia of using Nandrolone, but the other steroid did appear in his second sample.
The 25-year-old responded Thursday when his legal team said they had a hair sample tested voluntarily and it 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,” his legal team’s statement said in part.
Their statement also said the “ultra-low levels” of Ostarine in both samples “point to Ryan being a victim of supplement contamination,” and they will continue to fight to prove his innocence.
Garcia, who knocked junior welterweight Haney to the canvas three times en route to winning a majority decision April 20, was in Saudi Arabia to watch the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury heavyweight fight last weekend. There, he defended his integrity in comments to ESPN.
“I don’t know where (the adverse finding) came from,” Garcia said. “Honestly, bro, I don’t. I was taking ashwagandha, D-3, Omega-3, just normal (expletive). I don’t know what the (expletive) (ostarine) is.
“My whole thing is I’d rather tell the truth than try to fabricate it with a lie. Because lies don’t stand. … All I can say is legal team, help me figure this out.”
–Field Level Media
