Ryan Garcia is set to challenge Mario Barrios for the WBC world welterweight championship
Ryan Garcia is set to challenge Mario Barrios for the WBC world welterweight championship on the 21st of February at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
‘King Ry’ has one of the biggest social media followings of any current boxer, and his widely publicised controversies have drawn even more eyes to him in recent times.
His record of 24-2 (1) with 19 KOs carries a no-contest with it, that being the result of his bout with Devin Haney in April of 2024.
On that occasion, Garcia dropped his opponent three times and won a majority decision, only for it to later come out that he had tested positive for ostarine in tests conducted both before and after the fight.
Unable to prove his innocence, he was hit with a one-year ban from competing in professionally sanctioned boxing matches. When he returned in early May of 2025, it was to fight Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero for the vacant WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
To the shock of many, Ryan Garcia would end up losing this fight and even suffered a second-round knockdown. Rubbing some more salt in the wound, the “Regular” title that Romero won with the victory would go on to be upgraded to the full thing after Jaron Ennis vacated the WBA (Super) title upon departing the division.
But in Mario Barrios, the holder of the WBC welterweight title, Garcia has a new opportunity to become a world champion.
Like Romero, Barrios didn’t win his world title in the ring, but was upgraded due to his holding of the WBC interim belt. However, despite making two defences of his championship, Barrios is yet to score a win in a world title fight.
This is because Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) had to settle for a draw both times, the first in an entertaining battle with Abel Ramos on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson undercard (in which both men were knocked down) and the second in a fight with a 46-year-old Manny Pacquaio that the majority of observers actually scored in favour of the Filipino legend.
So, in essence, both fighters are going into this match with something to prove. And for an additional dynamic, Joe Goossen, who was previously Ryan Garcia’s trainer, will be working in the corner for Mario Barrios on the night.
The 72-year-old has trained a number of notable fighters over the years, but is probably best known for his role in the first clash between Diego Corrales and José Luis Castillo–a fight which many deem the best of all time–where he famously encouraged a badly hurt Corrales to fight Castillo on the inside after being dropped twice.
But during the launch press conference for his former charge’s showdown with Barrios, while Goossen took to the stand to speak for the man he’ll be helping on the day of the fight, he thanked Garcia’s team for the time they’d spent together, to which Garcia replied, “How could you, Joe? That’s messed up.”
Garcia further went on to say, “I just can’t believe you’re doing this to me. That’s insane. You hurt my heart, for real. Nah, you broke my heart. It’s over.”
Once Garcia took the stand himself, he stated, “One thing I do wanna mention, you know, they got three guys that used to train me, not just Joe. This man [Barrios] called the Avengers. I call ’em ‘the traitors’.”
The two other people Garcia was mentioning were Justin Fortune (his one-time trainer for the Romero fight) and someone else only referred to as “Wally”.
Ryan Garcia then removed a backpack he was wearing and produced from it shirts that read “I AM A TRAITOR”, one of which had Joe Goossen’s name on the back. He then proceeded to throw the shirt Goossen’s way.
All of this would indicate that Garcia doesn’t appreciate Goossen splitting with him to join the team of Barrios, and whether the switch makes a difference remains to be seen.
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