Ryan Garcia wasn’t his usual provocative self during the recent two-stop promotional tour for his fight with Rolando “Rolly” Romero on May 2.

Garcia attributes his different demeanor during, before and after those press conferences in New York and Los Angeles to his lingering anger about being branded a PED cheat. As his one-year suspension for using ostarine nears its end, the polarizing Garcia insisted during a recent interview with Akin Reyes and Barak Bess for “RING CHAMPS,” their YouTube series, that he was “set up” after his majority-decision upset of Haney last April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Victorville, California native dropped Haney three times – once apiece in the seventh, 10th and 11th rounds – and won their 12-round welterweight fight on two scorecards (115-109, 114-110, 112-112). Garcia’s win was changed to a no-contest after the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association revealed he tested positive for ostarine, a banned substance.

The New York State Athletic Commission subsequently suspended Garcia for one year and fined him $1.2 million. Before he failed VADA’s performance-enhancing drug test, Garcia came in 3½ pounds overweight for a fight that was supposed to be contested for Haney’s WBC 140-pound championship.

Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) and Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) are contractually committed to fighting again sometime in October if they win their matches May 2 at Times Square in New York. Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, will face former WBC/WBO 140-pound champ Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) in the 12-round co-feature before Garcia meets Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) in the 12-round, 147-pound main event of The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City Of The Wolves” tripleheader, which will take place outdoors in one of the world’s most iconic spaces.

Even if Garcia gets the opportunity to face Haney again, the former WBC interim lightweight champion admits he will never truly get over what happened to him last year.

“You know, not only did, you know, they take my – what I felt like was the victory I always wanted, you know, against an elite fighter, somebody that, you know, I thought would give me my respect in boxing,” Garcia said during the aforementioned “Ak & Barak” segment. “Yeah, I had the incident. Yeah, I was drinking. Yeah, I was doing all that. But one thing I don’t do is take steroids. You know? And I know, in my heart, they set me up in that way. Regardless of, you know, what their claims are, they’re never gonna admit that. Nobody’s gonna, you know, nobody’s gonna admit that, you know, they had that in their back pocket.

“But it was just so convenient that, you know, I tested clean all the way through and then after the fight everything was good. And, you know, his little brother’s posting, ‘Oh, he’s gonna test positive for steroids.’ How the f*ck do you know that Imma test positive before any news come out? And then, all of a sudden, then it gets announced and the next day Devin Haney’s on SportsCenter, you know, talking about it. So, it’s like it felt like I was set up. And it just, it did a number on me. You know, I became very angry. I guess, in a sense, I’m still angry, in a way.”

Garcia, 26, did not elaborate as to who, exactly, he believes conspired with Haney’s team to harm his reputation. Haney has dropped his lawsuit against Garcia, whom he accused of battery, fraud and breach of contract, in conjunction with their rematch agreement.

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.