Claressa Shields would like Rolando “Rolly” Romero to knock out Ryan Garcia. 

“I’m hoping that Rolly catches Ryan and puts his damn lights out,” Shields, the undisputed heavyweight champion, said in an interview with Fight Hub TV.

Shields recalled Garcia’s fight with Devin Haney last April, after which Garcia tested positive for the banned substance ostarine and eventually accepted a one-year ban from the sport. Initially a majority decision win for Garcia, the fight was ruled a no-contest.. 

Since then, there have been two schools of thought. 

There are those who believe Garcia’s positive test is reprehensible, and that the initial result of the Haney fight is irrelevant given the substance in Garcia’s system.

And there are those who believe Haney should have been able to win anyway – and that his subsequent lawsuit against Garcia is unbecoming of a fighter.

Shields subscribes to the first point-of-view. 

“Ryan’s a drug cheat,” she said. “And he knows he’s a drug cheat. The world keeps saying, ‘Oh, Devin can’t get out of the way of a hook!’ He got hit with a steroid hook. I don’t know why you guys keep putting that word off. It wasn’t just a hook. It was a steroid hook. And it hurt him, since he got hit with it in the first round.”

Shields also called out Garcia’s pattern of abusive, defamatory and racist behavior. Among Garcia’s transgressions: repeatedly saying the N-word; saying he wanted to bring George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer, back to life so that he could be killed again; and disparaging Muslims. 

“Everybody gives him a pass – ‘Oh, he’s doing better, he went to rehab,’ whatever the case may be,” Shields said. “That stuff is in him, man. That’s his character. [...] He’s said things to me about my family. Said that my dad raped me, all type of stuff. I don’t respect that.”

Though he was expelled by the WBC for his racist comments, Garcia has largely seen the sport welcome him back with open arms. His fight with Romero is one of three bouts on a well-promoted card in New York City’s Times Square, and as a pay-per-view draw, Garcia will easily find his way to big fights for years to come. 

Shields feels differently from her personal experience with Garcia. 

“He tries to laugh – ‘Oh, Claressa, I was playing’ – I don’t care how drunk and high he was,” Shields said. “Because if I get drunk and high, and I go live, and I go on Spaces and talk about Mexicans, Blacks, whites, people are going to hold me accountable for that. So he doesn’t get a pass because he was high and drunk.”