{"id":269769,"date":"2025-11-07T22:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269769\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:55:11","slug":"sanctioning-mario-barrios-ryan-garcia-title-fight-egregious-even-for-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269769\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioning Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia Title Fight Egregious Even For WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Garcia<\/a> has fought once at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.
Garcia would be the first to tell you that fight, his 12-rounder against huge underdog Rolando \u201cRolly\u201d Romero<\/a>, amounted to the poorest performance of his career. Once Romero dropped Garcia in the second round, he seemed reluctant to engage and appeared to accept defeat in their fight for the WBA\u2019s secondary welterweight title.
The decisive loss<\/a> cost Garcia a huge payday for a rematch with rival Devin Haney<\/a> that tentatively was targeted for last month.<\/p>\n

One judge, Waleska Roldan, went as far as to score 10 rounds for Romero, who won 118-109 on her card May 2 in New York. The two other judges, Tony Paolillo and Tom Schreck, scored Romero a 115-112 winner in the main event of The Ring\u2019s outdoor card at Times Square.<\/p>\n

Garcia, 27, fought for the first time in more than a year that night because his previous performance in a majority-decision victory over Haney was negated after he tested positive for Ostarine, a performance-enhancing drug. The Victorville, California, native, who also came in three-plus pounds overweight for that 140-pound title fight, was suspended for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission and fined $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

The WBC also suspended Garcia in July 2024, not long after his win against Haney was changed to a no-contest, after making racist remarks on social media. Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the WBC, announced this week that Garcia\u2019s suspension has been lifted<\/a>.
The timing of the WBC\u2019s announcement regarding Garcia shouldn\u2019t shock anyone. It coincided with the news first reported by my Ring colleague, Mike Coppinger, that negotiations are ongoing<\/a> for Garcia to challenge WBC welterweight champ Mario Barrios<\/a> in his next fight sometime early in 2026.<\/p>\n

Approving Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) for a welterweight title fight despite everything explained above is egregious, even by WBC standards.<\/p>\n

The polarizing Garcia isn\u2019t ranked among the WBC\u2019s top 15 contenders in the 147-pound division. Surely, though, his knockout of Oscar Duarte<\/a> in December 2023 will warrant Garcia\u2019s convenient insertion soon enough into one of the spots that\u2019ll allow him to challenge Barrios.<\/p>\n

Assuming their handlers reach an agreement, Sulaiman somehow will attempt to justify sanctioning Barrios-Garcia as a welterweight title fight. Or maybe he\u2019ll ignore the criticism, much the way he\u2019d have to disregard Garcia\u2019s last two years in boxing to grant him an undeserved shot at Barrios\u2019 belt.<\/p>\n

No Reason To Applaud Paul, MVP
Jake Paul<\/a> and his business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, didn\u2019t do anything noble this week. They knew they had no choice but to scrap Paul\u2019s ill-conceived exhibition with Gervonta Davis<\/a> and simply acted accordingly.<\/p>\n

Their company\u2019s most commendable contribution to boxing has been its consistent commitment to affording women opportunities and paydays they otherwise wouldn\u2019t have received. It would\u2019ve sent a conflicting, disgusting message to the women MVP Promotions represents if they then ignored yet another domestic violence incident involving Davis just to keep their November 14 event intact.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s surprising, frankly, that Paul didn\u2019t draw more criticism for doing business with the unbeaten WBA lightweight champion given Davis\u2019 history of domestic violence and the fact that MVP has 31 women champions, contenders and prospects under contract. <\/p>\n

Initially ignoring Davis\u2019 behavior to arrange another Netflix spectacle was what made Paul\u2019s over-the-top outrage once their fight was canceled come across as disingenuous.<\/p>\n

Lubin\u2019s Comeback Underappreciated
Eight years after his catastrophic first-round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo, Erickson Lubin<\/a> is still taking the most dangerous assignments in the junior middleweight division.
The courageous contender didn\u2019t hesitate to accept a fight against knockout artist Vergil Ortiz<\/a> near his hometown Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas (DAZN<\/a>; 8 p.m. ET).
Ortiz is the third straight undefeated opponent for Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs), who passed on a mandated shot at Bakhram Murtazaliev<\/a>\u2019s IBF junior middleweight title in part because he knows upsetting Ortiz would do more for his standing in boxing<\/a> than becoming a champion for the first time in almost 12 years as a pro.<\/p>\n

Win, lose or draw in what figures to be a fan-friendly fight versus Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs), Lubin\u2019s ability to rebuild his career and compete at the top level for so long after Charlo clipped him is one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern boxing history. <\/p>\n

That devastating defeat in October 2017 could\u2019ve ruined Lubin, but the resilient southpaw from Orlando, Florida, wouldn\u2019t allow it, not even after he was stopped by Sebastian Fundora<\/a> in their unforgettable brawl 3\u00bd years ago.The Final Bell
\u25a0 Robert Garcia, Ortiz\u2019s trainer, claimed this week that if Jaron Ennis<\/a> genuinely wanted to fight, the former unified welterweight champ would\u2019ve invited his nemesis to sit ringside for his pointless two-minute blowout of Uisma Lima<\/a> on October 11. It was in Ennis\u2019 hometown of Philadelphia. Ortiz, of course, was immersed at that time in training camp almost 3,000 miles away for his fight with Lubin and wouldn\u2019t have flown clear across the U.S. even if Ennis or promoter Eddie Hearn begged him to come. Furthermore, why would Ennis and Hearn commit to sit ringside for Ortiz-Lubin if they don\u2019t want Ortiz next?
\u25a0 There are entirely too many overpriced pay-per-view shows in the United States these days. But putting the Badou Jack-Noel Mikaelian rematch on that platform December 13<\/a> seems particularly audacious, even for $40. Their second fight for Jack\u2019s WBC cruiserweight championship will be the fourth of five pay-per-view events in a six-week span, including three Ring cards.
\u25a0 Claressa Shields<\/a> said Thursday she wants to fight former Olympic teammate Mikaela Mayer<\/a> next. If a promoter makes it worthwhile financially for these friends to fight, it\u2019ll be interesting to see how much weight Shields would be willing to shed to ensure that it happens. Mayer doesn\u2019t want to go higher than 154 pounds<\/a>, the weight at which she dominated Mary Spencer<\/a> in the WBO welterweight champ\u2019s junior middleweight debut last week. Shields, 30, hasn\u2019t made 154 pounds in nearly five years and has weighed at least 173\u00bd pounds for each of her past three fights.<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Garcia has fought once at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.Garcia would be the first to tell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2989,2983,2831,2988,2981,2984,2985,2986,2987,2982,1920,2993,2992,1913,2976,2977,2990,2978,2975,2994,2772,85,2991,2974,2980,2979],"class_list":{"0":"post-269769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-boxing-community","12":"tag-boxing-fights","13":"tag-boxing-history","14":"tag-boxing-interviews","15":"tag-boxing-magazine","16":"tag-boxing-photos","17":"tag-boxing-rankings","18":"tag-boxing-results","19":"tag-boxing-schedule","20":"tag-boxing-videos","21":"tag-boxing-news","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}