“He Didn’t Cheat”: Dana White Defends Ryan Garcia, Seemingly Says He Had Wrong People Defending His Case

After a terrific win against Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia was in complete disbelief when he discovered his B-sample tested positive for Ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator, in other words, a PED. Although Garcia and his legal team argued for the boxer’s innocence, the NYSAC ultimately banned ‘KingRy’ for a year after a deal with his legal team, changing his victory against Haney into a no-contest. Now, UFC president Dana White jumped to Ryan Garcia’s defense, publicly claiming the latter did not cheat!

So, Garcia argued that he was in the dark about Ostarine and had only taken ashwagandha, D-3, and Omega-3 among the natural supplements. At the same time, Darin Chavez, one of the members of Garcia’s legal team, revealed that after the adverse analytical finding, ‘KingRy’ voluntarily sent his hair to Dr. Pascal Kintz for hair-sample analysis which returned “negative.” Therefore, Chavez hoped one of the natural supplements Garcia took would “prove to be contaminated.”

In this context, yesterday, Ryan Garcia even held Coach Scooter accountable for providing ‘KingRy’ with “tainted” supplements he believed were responsible for the positive test. And now Dana White said, “With all our knowledge that we have and the years that we’ve been drug-testing, we believe the people who had handled the drug-testing [knew] that he took a tainted supplement and that he did not cheat.” In White’s opinion, Garcia’s team failed to handle the matter well.

“If he had the right people around him that wouldn’t have happened. We were pretty confident it was a tainted supplement,” Dana White added at the post-fight press conference for UFC 303.

“It’s not my fight, it’s none of my business, not my place to even talk about it. But, from what my team tells me, and these guys are the best, it was a tainted supplement,” White concluded confidently. Speaking of the inadequacy of Garcia’s team, it is worth mentioning that Garcia recently fired his lawyer-cum-advisor.

Ryan Garcia fires Lupe Valencia over alleged link with Coach Scooter

After the adverse finding came to light, Darin Chavez told ESPN that at the hearing with the NYSAC, they would “absolve Garcia of any wrongdoing.” On the other hand, after Garcia had to forfeit the $1.2 Million he made from the fight against Devin Haney, his team claimed it was not in Ryan’s nature to cheat. So, they argued firmly that Garcia had not taken a banned substance “intentionally.” However, Garcia’s legal team failed to save the boxer from a one-year ban.

On that note, Ryan Garcia fired his lawyer and advisor Lupe Valencia who had connected ‘KingRy’ with Coach Scooter, the one Garcia believes gave himself tainted supplements. “I fired Lupe. Lupe’s gone. Like two days ago… He’s Al Haymon’s puppet,” ‘KingRy’ told FightHype. On being asked if Valencia hooked Garcia up with Scooter, Ryan said, “Yeah.” With that said, what do you think of Dana White defending Ryan Garcia? Let us know in the comments below.