Undisputed Removes Ryan Garcia and Scores of Fans Cry WBC Censorship
One week before the game's official launch, Undisputed has removed the renowned boxer Ryan Garcia from the game following his suspension.
- Undisputed has been running in Early Access since 2023 on Steam, but the official launch date was declared only a few months ago.
- It's only a week before the game will be out on all the platforms officially, but at this point, Ryan Garcia was removed from the game.
- This has generated a wave of anger among the fans of this renowned boxer, as they wanted to play as him in-game.
It’s almost time for players to dive into an ultimate boxing experience, but the waiting seems not to be exciting for a lot of boxing fans after the latest announcement. Undisputed is an upcoming boxing video game releasing on October 11 on multiple platforms simultaneously. The boxing video game genre is pretty populated, but Undisputed still managed to create hype among boxing fans before its release.
While the game is already in its early access on Steam and players have been enjoying the roster full of renowned boxers, a sudden announcement of the removal of Ryan Garcia surprised gamers, and a substantial number of them got furious about this decision.
Undisputed Removed Controversial Boxer Ryan Garcia Ahead of Official Launch
Undisputed is the project that Steel City Interactive and Deep Silver have been working on for a long time. Though the exclusive Steam access of the game was started back in January 2023, the official launch date was only confirmed earlier this year. While with some impressive trailers and Steam Early Access, the developer has built the hype pretty well, but in the end moment, this one announcement messed up a lot of things.
The Undisputed roster has multiple renowned names on it, like Canelo Alvarez, Tyson Fury, Arturo Gatti, Kevin Kelley, Larry Holmes, etc., along with several female boxers like Katie Tylor, Seniesa Estrada, Claressa Shields, and many more. Until October 2, this roster even had the name of Ryan Garcia.
The developer released this statement officially on Undisputed‘s Discord and confirmed that Garcia will be removed at launch. It stated,
“following the lead of the World Boxing Council (WBC), Ryan Garcia’s character will no longer be playable in local, online and prize fight game modes, and players won’t be able to create new career mode saves with this character.”
Players who have been experiencing him in the career mode during early access will be able to play as him until a new update launches in December 2024.
Players Become Inflamed by the Removal of Ryan Garcia Due to Controversies
Ryan Garcia has always been a hot discussion topic in the sports world because of the controversies that have surrounded him in recent years. Earlier this year, in June, he got involved in a new controversy as he tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug. This has caused him a year ban from the World Boxing Council.
This is the declared reason behind Undisputed removing a disputed character from the game. Well, the fanbase of Garcia isn’t happy with this decision.
As soon as the news came to light, gamers started slamming the game for removing the renowned boxer. On the subreddit, a lot of them asked why WBC can decide who will be in the game.
Some of them said this is the beginning of Undisputed becoming worse by removing fighters.
A lot of fans were even angry that Mike Tyson was kept despite being accused of harassment.
Some even enquired whether they can get a refund after Ryan Garcia was removed from the roster.
The response is mixed though.
Some are even supporting the developer in removing the controversial boxing personality from the roster for now.
Well, the game will be released in a few days, and whether this decision makes some impact on the game’s popularity will soon be revealed.
