A top-ranked prize fighter who put on a shadowboxing display for a smiling Donald Trump and his son Barron in April has been expelled by the World Boxing Council for making racist online comments.
“I hate n*****s, I’m anti-black, I’m the KKK,” Ryan Garcia declared during a live X Space on July 4. “Hey, let’s go bring George Floyd back to life and go kill that n***** again.”
An Instagram video that the 25-year-old boxer posted on April 26 shows him demonstrating the speed of his hands for Trump and Barron inside an ornate drawing room at Mar-a-Lago.
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“Trump 2024!” Garcia calls out at the end of the clip.
When he posted the video, Garcia announced in caps, “TRUMP IS MY FRIEND.”
Garcia had demonstrated his skills in the ring at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, six days before, when he initially won in a decision against WBC junior welterweight champion Devin Haney. The result had been challenged because Garcia tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug Ostarine just before the fight.
“Fake news like if I was Donald Trump,” Garcia said in a May 1 post on X, saying in an accompanying video, that it was all “big lies!”
On the same day, Garcia suggested on X that he was being targeted because of the video of him with the former president.
Garcia, who was pictured at Saudi Arabia ahead of a boxing match there in May, is now banned from the WBC.
Andrew Couldridge/Action Images/Reuterd“Hmm I’m seen with trump… And now I’m positive for steroids… This is a straight attack… Crazy”
After subsequent testing confirmed the original results, the New York State Athletic Commission hit Garcia with a one-year suspension in June. The outcome of the fight was voided and Haney’s title was restored. Garcia reportedly agreed to forfeit his $1.1 million prize and pay a $10,000 fine.
Garcia’s troubles mounted on June 9, when he was arrested for felony vandalism after allegedly trashing a room and a hallway at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. His attorney, Darin Chavez, told ESPN in a statement that Garcia “has been grappling with devastating news regarding his mother’s health.”
“Ryan has been open about his struggles with mental health over the years, and at this time he is dealing with an immense emotional burden,” Chavez said. “The support and understanding from fans and the public are crucial as he navigates these personal challenges.”
In the months leading up to the Haney fight, Garcia appeared to suffer a mental unraveling online. He insisted he possesses evidence that aliens—the extraterrestrial type—live among us. He also reported, “I got PROOF that Elon Musk is the ANTICHRIST.”
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman posted on X that he had become concerned about Garcia’s well being and offered to help him with what appeared to be mental health and substance abuse issues. But whatever troubles he has did not excuse the racist venom of his July 4 tirade.
“Exercising my authority as president of the WBC, I am hereby expelling Ryan Garcia from any activity with our organization,” Sulaiman said in a statement online. “We reject any form of discrimination.”
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Garcia’s attorney.
