The highly anticipated WBC welterweight title fight between champion Mario Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) and Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) held its press conference on Thursday at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, ahead of their February 21 fight live on DAZN PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
Although the press conference was free and open to the public, there wasn’t much noise from the crowd other than one guy yelling out prediction comments from the balcony. Everyone on stage, including Team Barrios (Tom Brown & Joe Goosen), The Ring’s Rick Reeno, and Team Garcia (Oscar De La Hoya, Henry Garcia, and Lupe Valenica), was on their best behavior early on.
The turning point came when Henry Garcia (Ryan’s father) took the podium and expressed feeling disrespected by Joe Goosen for training Barrios specifically for this fight against his son. Henry also said that Goosen had done this before with other fighters, training one boxer and then, years later, training their opponent. However, he never imagined it would happen with his son. Goosen then had his turn to defend himself, and he did, but the segment from both trainers was a little dull.
The press conference quickly shifted to Ryan Garcia vs. Joe Goosen as Ryan jumped in when Goosen took the podium, saying he was hurt by Goosen’s action. The trainer would fire back and explain that it’s strictly business and nothing personal.
Garcia did his best to create some highlights, especially when he said, “I love the WBC” and had girls come out with the WBC letters held high. Then Garcia pulled out shirts that said “I’m a traitor” not only for Goosen but also for the other two guys who left Garcia to join Barrios’ team.
At this point, Garcia’s focus was to discredit Goosen while adding a bit of theatrics to the press conference, as social media influencers were in attendance.
When Barrios stepped up to the podium, he didn’t do much to promote the fight, as his comments were reserved and lacked confidence. But that’s just typical of Barrios. He’s not going to impress you with his personality. Where Barrios falls short in public charisma, he makes up for it in the ring, as he is one of the toughest champions in the division and can take a punch.
In the end, Barrios and Garcia faced off, but it wasn’t for long before they turned to the cameras and posed for media photos.
This fight isn’t high on the radar of boxing fans right now, but something tells me it will be come fight night. Garcia is unpredictable, which is often what makes him an attraction. Barrios doesn’t typically surprise fans with his performances, as he fights in a similar manner each time, but it will be interesting to see how he performs with Goosen. On February 21, live on DAZN PPV from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV, we will either see Barrios prove himself as a true 147-pound champion or Garcia win his first significant title since turning pro.
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