Former boxer Tony Bellew is now a prominent commentator who never hides his views on boxing.
This week he was speaking about Ryan Garcia, who was suspended for one year by the New York State Athletic Commission after testing positive for the banned substance ostarine before and after his April 20 bout with Devin Haney.
Speaking to The Stomping Ground, Bellew was asked for his thoughts on Garcia and the suspension and said:
“Sad. Very sad. You have banned performance enhancing drugs in your system. Steroids. Everyone knows that if you have steroids in your system you are banned for life. This is not a substance like smoking marijuana, this is a banned steroid. I can't think of anything other than a suspension.”
Bellew, who has previously come under criticism for not seeking a similar sentence in the case of Conor Benn, said that as far as he was aware, the drugs in question could not have affected the Englishman's performance.
He then gave the case of American heavyweight boxer Jarrell Miller, who was found to have taken a wide variety of PEDs not once but twice.
“We shouldn't be having these conversations anymore. A perfect example is Jarrell Miller, who was on the verge of becoming the Hulk. All we should have done was ban him for life and these conversations would have stopped, but they didn't ban him, and that's why this continues to happen in sports.”
He gave one last calm thought.
“The longer this continues, the worse it will get. Someone will soon die at the hands of illegal drug users.”
Garcia's opponent, Haney, has said he may take a year off from the sport to await the rematch.
