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It was all good just a week ago. I recently wrote about boxer Ryan Garcia, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who recently endorsed Donald Trump in a video promoted by the Trump campaign. The endorsement highlighted how Trump is turning to endorsements from influencers and celebrities to buoy his 2024 candidacy, after scaring away experts with governing experience. Garcia had just notched an unlikely, albeit controversial, victory over boxer Devin Haney, and Trump was drafting off the fighter’s moment in the spotlight.
But the story has taken a turn.
Garcia had already been penalized for failing to make weight for the fight. And on Wednesday, ESPN reported on a letter sent to Garcia from the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association indicating that he tested positive twice for performance-enhancing drugs. Garcia has denied that he used steroids in a number of forums; in a video posted to X, he said, "Never taken a steroid ... I don’t even know where to get steroids," the AP reports. In the video he also mentions the supplement ashwagandha as a possible reason for the positive test.
The tone of his denials, however, are dripping with Trumpian deflection and evasions. In one social media post on X (formerly Twitter), Garcia suggested the positive test was an "attack" because of his Trump support.
“Fake news like I’m Trump,” Garcia said in an Instagram caption alongside a video of him ranting about the report.
In a separate conversation on X spaces, Garcia made expletive-laden comments that echoed rhetoric he’s pushed in the past, claiming the report was probably released by “pedophile” elites he says he's been “trying to take down.” In that same tirade, Garcia offered a defense (of sorts) of his recent win that really didn’t help his cause. “Even if a motherf---er was on steroids, right? You still got your a-- handed to you. Left hook. Ayy — you still got hit,” he said.
One of his supporters immediately jumped in to save Garcia from himself: “Yeah, but Ryan you don’t even have to say that because there was no steroids whatsoever.”
Garcia and Trump are clearly a fitting match: Both know how it feels when their declared victories are called into question, and both are clearly unashamed to spread salacious conspiracy theories to push back against stories that could damage their already-shaky reputations as winners.