Ryan Garcia addresses alleged drug use in heated press conference confrontation with Devin Haney
The press conference between Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney erupted into allegations of drug use.
On Saturday, April 20, Haney will put his WBC super lightweight title on the line against ‘The Flash’ in a bout scheduled to emanate from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Ahead of their highly anticipated clash, the two warriors met at a press event in Los Angeles to promote the bout.
While there, Garcia struggled to speak at times, citing a sore throat. That led Haney to accuse Garcia of using cocaine and suggesting that the former interim lightweight champion stop partaking in the substance to help preserve his voice. Garcia immediately denied the allegations.
“I want to clarify some things,” Garcia said as Haney continued to levy allegations. “I don’t do cocaine. I would do a live drug test… I drink, and I smoke weed, and so has the majority of this room. You finally got somebody that raised their hands saying I’m real, I’m like this, I do drink, I do smoke, now what? Guess what? We all have flaws, and we all evolve as people.“
It’s the second time this week that Ryan Garcia has found himself the subject of many a headline.
During an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, ‘King Ryan’ claimed that he would “destroy” UFC bantamweight world champion Sean O’Malley inside the Octagon. That sparked a bitter back-and-forth between the two combat sports stars, ending with ‘Sugar’ stating that he would kill Garcia “within minutes.”
Garcia goes into his title fight with Haney carrying a 24-1 record, his lone loss coming against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in April 2023. He has since bounced back with an eighth-round KO of Oscar Duarte in December.
Haney, on the other hand, is undefeated in his pro boxing career with a 31-0 record, 15 of those victories coming by way of knockout.
