Ryan Garcia causes a stir in Los Angeles. Mario Barrios remains calm – and announces a fight without excuses for February 21 in Las Vegas.
Ryan Garcia has turned the first press conference in Los Angeles into his appearance. He interrupts, calls into the hall, hands out T-shirts and even briefly leaves the podium in between. In doing so, he sets the tone early ahead of the WBC welterweight title fight against Mario Barrios, which takes place on February 21 in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Instead of talking at length about tactics, Garcia brings up another story: Joe Goossen, his former coach, now works for Barrios. Garcia presents this as a personal rift and says to Goossen: “You broke my heart, Joe.” Goossen tries to defuse the drama. He explains that he has no grudges and is only concentrating on his fighter: “My goal is the same as in every fight – I want my fighter to win.”
Garcia nevertheless drives the scene on. He throws Goossen a shirt with the words “I AM A TRAITOR” on it. Goossen throws it back without much reaction. Barrios watches the whole thing calmly and finally comments: “This is turning into a circus.” When Barrios then speaks himself, he becomes clear. He says he thinks it’s good when Garcia is really fully focused. Then there will be no excuses on fight night: he wants to beat him on February 21, no matter how much Garcia is looking for the show beforehand.
But Garcia also shows an unusually clear side at the end. He talks about his recent performances and says he has to look forward after setbacks. He announces that he is “locked in”, warns himself of Barrios’ danger – and promises to be the best version of himself.
Text by Robin Josten