It was frustrating when Ryan Garcia was first approved as a challenger to the WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
He most recently had lost to Rolando “Rolly” Romero and, despite never having won a fight at welterweight, he was being rewarded again, simply because of his profile and the money that one of his fights attracts.
But it is an interesting match-up. Garcia’s a magnet for attention, and unpredictable enough that audiences want to watch his fights to see how they unfold. He can look brilliant, or he can underperform.
Garcia has all of the physical attributes a high-level fighter needs – it’s psychologically he needs grow. Even at welterweight he’s tall; he’s big; he’s got very fast hands, is a good counter-puncher, and has power. His popularity means that he sometimes gets dismissed like a YouTuber might, but he was a high-level amateur who fought everybody. If he hasn’t yet reached his peak, it’s because he hasn’t put everything together. He impressed against Luke Campbell, but he quit against Gervonta “Tank” Davis and was also struggling, psychologically, when he fought Devin Haney.
Barrios, perhaps, is the underdog. Not unlike Garcia, it’s been approaching two years since Barrios recorded a victory – and not only is Garcia the more dynamic of the two, Barrios isn’t particularly fast, a killer puncher, or blessed with a high IQ or technical ability. He’s simply solid.
But as dynamic as Garcia is, fighters of Barrios’ profile can trouble him. Barrios will be in fine shape – he’s both hard working and disciplined – is durable, has a stiff jab, and is a strong body puncher. We’ve also seen him get knocked down and return to his feet and fight on. Like Garcia, there have also been occasions, such as against Manny Pacquiao in his past fight, when he simply doesn’t show up.
Even if Garcia is in a good head space, he neglects using his reach, strength and jab. It’s been said that he lacks a boxing IQ but I instead believe that he gets excited and resists using his fundamentals to take a risk and hurt his opponent.
Barrios has recruited Joe Goossen, Garcia’s former trainer, to prepare him for Saturday – and Goossen’s experience could be valuable for him on fight night. But I question whether Barrios will listen to him – he had a good trainer in Bob Santos previously, and despite Santos saying the right things during the fight with Pacquiao, Barrios didn’t pull the trigger.
Goossen’s knowledge of Garcia may be an advantage if Barrios listens to him – and I doubt Barrios would have asked him to train him had he not had that knowledge, despite how proven a trainer Goossen is – but if it’s troubling Garcia then Garcia’s hiding it well.
Garcia has prepared under his father Henry. Goossen said previously that Garcia isn’t a fighter a trainer can traditionally train. What we can be confident of is that he will have been comfortable under his father, but it’s more difficult to tell how capable Henry Garcia is of steering him through pressure, and indeed whether Ryan Garcia will listen to him either way.
The relative unpredictability of both fighters means that there are several ways this fight could easily unfold. Garcia’s dangerous early, but when he’s dangerous he’s also vulnerable – will Barrios, like Romero, try to take advantage of that in the opening rounds? Garcia’s speed means that Barrios should resist and instead try to be cautious and take Garcia into the later rounds. If he does, I can see the explosive, reactive Garcia – whose condition we can’t be certain about – folding under pressure late on.
The undercard fights between Gary Antuanne Russell and Andy Hiraoka, and Richardson Hitchins and Oscar Duarte, are better than the main event.
Hitchins-Duarte, for Hitchins’ IBF junior-welterweight title, is a good clash of styles between the long, jabbing boxer in Hitchins, and the strong, durable and powerful Duarte. Working under Robert Garcia gives Duarte a chance – Raymond Muratalla recently won a similar fight against Andy Cruz – but Hitchins, like the WBA champion Russell against Hiraoka, is the favourite because of his boxing ability.
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When I saw that Manny Pacquiao, my opponent in my biggest fight, will be fighting Ruslan Provodnikov, my opponent on the night of my biggest victory, in an exhibition on April 18 I took a deep breath. But I quickly learned to like that Pacquiao appears to have accepted he shouldn’t be fighting younger champions.
At 47 years old they know what Pacquiao is, which is why he will be fighting an inactive 42-year-old. On the strength of his name alone Pacquiao could have fought Romero if he’d wanted but he realised against Barrios that he’d been asking too much of himself.
I don’t expect this to be as big as the Barrios fight was, but it certainly felt nostalgic for me, not least because of how much I liked Provodnikov in his prime and how much I admired Pacquiao after fighting him.
