Former world champion Paulie Malignaggi based Ryan Garcia today, saying that when he’s “not doping, he’s not fast” or strong.
Malignaggi is not impressed with Ryan’s ability. He notes that he suddenly developed a power surge five years ago when he knocked out Romero Duno in the first round in 2019 with a punch that barely connected to the top of his head.
Paulie feels that Ryan’s speed, power, and conditioning improvements were due to him using PEDs. The 26-year-old Garcia recently tested positive for the banned performance-enhancement drug Ostarine following his 12-round majority decision win over Devin Haney on April 20th in Brooklyn, New York.
The former two-division world champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) was the oddsmakers favorite heading into the fight with Garcia, but he was hurt almost immediately in the first round from a left hook.
From there, it was all downhill for Haney, with Ryan dropping him in rounds 7, 10, and 11 with powerful left hooks.
“Ryan Garcia, when he’s not doping, is not fast, he’s not strong, he’s not conditioned, and he’s not even good,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV, trashing Ryan Garcia. “I have been suspicious of Ryan Garcia doping since probably the [Romero] Duno fight [on November 2, 2019].
Some fans on social media believe that Malignaggi is bitter about what Ryan did to Haney, a fighter with a finesse style similar to the one he used during his career. Watching Ryan massacre Haney could have been hard for Malignaggi to accept.
Ryan cracked the Haney code so easily with his left hook smash. Was that an ego hit for Malignaggi watching Haney get figured out so quickly by Ryan, who had him on skates in the first round from a thunderous left hook that connected to the side of his head?
“The Duno fight, I saw the knockout. I didn’t say, ‘Oh, this guy is definitely doping,’ because you can never really say that,” said Malignaggi about the first-round knockout win for Ryan over Romero Duno. “But there was a certain kind of power surge all of a sudden in Ryan Garcia’s career. It was drastic. It wasn’t, ‘He’s kind of getting strong.’ He was getting stoppages.”
Malignaggi may not have followed Ryan’s career closely before his fight with Duno, but he was knocking out many of his opponents in the early rounds. Before fighting Duno, Ryan had five 1st round knockouts and six 2nd round knockouts. When a fighter is knocking out their opponents within the first two rounds at a clip like that, it suggests that they have major power.
Ryan didn’t suddenly start knocking out opponents when he fought Romero Duno. He’d been doing it all along, but the only difference was he received more attention from that victory because the contest received a lot of publicity.
“But the Duno fight where you hit a durable guy, and you barely hit him on the top of the head, and one leg went one way, and the other leg went the other way, and he’s knocked out in the first round. I was like, ‘This guy was never hitting like that,’” said Malignaggi.
If Ryan knocks out Haney in the rematch, Malignaggi may change his tune about him, provided he tests negative for PEDs. As long as Ryan comes up negative on his tests before and after the fight, Malignaggi may jump on board the ship and become one of his true believers.
It’s unclear whether Ryan and Haney will ever fight again. Haney has a lawsuit against Ryan, which may result in a rematch never happening. Further, if someone like Jack Catterall beats Haney by knockout, there will be no point in Ryan fighting him again because he’ll be seen as damaged goods. There will be more fan interest in a fight between Ryan and Catterall.
