Does Ryan Garcia deserve a one-year suspension for failing the drug test? The New York State Athletic Commission revealed the breaking news that Garcia tested positive for the usage of performance-enhancing drugs on 19th June. His battle against Devin Haney was declared a no-contest, and ever since, the internet has been divided on this action against Garcia. Some believe that the 25-year-old boxer does not deserve a one-year ban. However, on the other hand, former NBA veteran Stephen Jackson does not want to see Garcia inside a ring ever again. Moreover, Jackson termed Garcia as an “Unconfident athlete“ for cheating, which has left the internet divided once again.
Jackson shared his take on the one-year ban of Garcia, “The motherf***** can cheat and take steroids to win and y’all still support him. That’s sad. But that goes to show a lot of y’all sit on Instagram and accomplish nothing in life…Y’all support cheating. If you gotta cheat to win anything, you are not that. You are not really good. Real winners never cheat.”
Jackson also gave his verdict, “I can’t believe they banned him for a year, they should have banned him for life“.
The Golden State Warriors icon believes Garcia deserves a lifetime ban for cheating. You would have also noted that Jackson called out the internet for showing their support to Garcia. One might think that Garcia’s reputation would have taken a hit due to the ban. However, that was not the case, as social media sided with him. Even after Jackson called out people for supporting Garcia, they decided to stick to their narrative.
“Steroids ain’t got s*** to do”: Fans are still siding with Ryan Garcia
Regardless of the ban and Garcia’s usage of PEDs, fans believe he is a better boxer than Devin Haney and is also highly skilled. A fan wrote, “Stop it steroids ain’t got shit to do with skill“, making a case for Garcia even after Jackson called him a cheater.
Another fan believes Jackson was misinformed. The Instagram user believes usage of Ostarine wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game. He wrote, “Bro passed every test leading up to the fight except the last couple days if you think steroids especially ostarine is gonna help even a little your very misinformed”, attempting to make Jackson’s case irrelevant.
Now, a new narrative on the internet is that the tests of Garcia were contaminated. Usually, it is very likely for an athlete to fail multiple tests if they use a performance-enhancing drug. However, Garcia failed only one test and the final one, thus a fan boldly commented, “We all know Ryan’s tests was contaminated…you can’t fail 1 & pass all the rest fam”.
Contrastingly, a few were in support of Jackson’s take as well. A user agreed to the NBA veteran’s verdict. He also believes that Garcia might have cheated in his previous fights. The user commented, “Nah Facts! They just caught him on this one but he probably did it on all his fights”, sharing the possibility of more such cases of cheating by Garcia.
Similar to the above lines, a fan questioned athletes’ decision to take drugs. The user replied to Jackson’s video, “So true! That’s like selling your soul to be an artist and you know you have talent! Why take those routes?“, leaving a stinging question to the athletes and social media for encouraging usage of drugs.
Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video: