UFC veteran defends Ryan Garcia amid racist remarks, says fighters are not supposed to be role models: "Strong supporter of all free speech"

Ryan Garcia is back in the headlines again for the wrong reasons but he seems to have some level of support from a former UFC welterweight title challenger.

'Ryan Garcia racist remarks' has been trending online in recent days on the heels of using slurs towards black people and he also made derogatory remarks about muslims. This transpired on a recent livestream that saw many lash out at the prolific pugilist.

Garcia has been in multiple tumultuous situations as of late after having also received a relatively recent suspension for one year. This came as a result of failed drug tests for Ostarine tied to his Devin Haney fight in late April with the New York State Athletic Commission also changing that decision win to a no contest.

On the heels of this racial tirade, former UFC competitor Jake Shields has taken to social media to offer up his thoughts on the matter. Via his personal X account, the former Strikeforce middleweight champion stated:

"The president of the WBC expelled Ryan Garcia for saying the N word and other racist language. Im a strong suporter of all free speech even if it's speech I disagree with. If someone said they hate white people I'll still defend his right to fight. Our jobs are to be the best fighter in the world not a role models."

Check out Shields' comments on the Garcia racist remarks controversy below:

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Ryan Garcia and the fallout from this racially charged controversy

Ryan Garcia, as referenced above by Jake Shields, was expelled by the World Boxing Council following this torrent of hate filled remarks.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman took to social media stating he was exercising his authority to remove Ryan Garcia from activity within his promotion. The 54-year-old stated that they reject any form of discrimination within this public address on Garcia.

'KingRy' was a former interim lightweight champion in the WBC and also initially recorded a win over the reigning WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney before the drug test issue overturned the verdict to a no contest. The 25-year-old somewhat responded by saying that he was just trolling and was sorry if he had offended anyone.

The California native also had his family come out and publicly state thT they were distancing themselves from these recent racial comments. They mentioned how these expressed thoughts do not reflect how Ryan was raised and mentioned wanting to focus on helping with the sweet science practitioner's mental health issues to aid his long term well being.