LAS VEGAS \u2013 Neither Mario Barrios nor Ryan Garcia want another loss on their professional record.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Saturday\u2019s title defense comes down to.<\/p>\n
Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) faces Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for Barrios\u2019 WBC welterweight world championship belt. The 12-round main event will cost $69.99 as a DAZN pay-per-view event starting at 7 p.m. San Antonio time. <\/p>\n
The defending world title holder talked to KSAT 12 Sports last week as Barrios fights for the sixth time in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n
Switching trainers<\/p>\n
The Southwest High School graduate trained with Bob Santos in Sin City for his last several fights. <\/p>\n
The last two title defenses did not give Barrios the results he was hoping for. There were two draws: a 2024 draw against Abel Ramos and another against Manny Pacquiao, his lone fight of 2025. <\/p>\n
The outcome of the last two fights could be the reason why Barrios, 30, searched for a new approach as he looks at the second half of his career. <\/p>\n
He picked Ryan Garcia\u2019s former trainer, Joe Goossen, to shake things up for 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe likes a lot more aggression, making it a rougher style of fight, which I\u2019ve never been against,\u201d Barrios told KSAT. \u201cIt takes me back to my early days when I turned pro. A much higher punch output. I\u2019ve been liking it a lot. It\u2019s showing its benefit, and I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fight poster fuss<\/p>\n
In January, DAZN released their fight poster for \u201cEl Azteca\u2019s\u201d title defense against Ryan Garcia. The Victorville, California, native made it known that he believed his name \u2014 not Barrios\u2019 \u2014 should be the first name featured on the poster.<\/p>\n
Barrios said he was surprised to see Garcia air his complaints on social media. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018What do you expect? I\u2019m the current champion,\u2019\u201d Barrios said. \u201cI think he forgets that. So many people hype him up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Press conference drama<\/p>\n
The drama from Garcia spilled over to their only press conference promoting the fight on Jan. 22 in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
At one point, Garcia called out his former trainer Joe Goossen for training his opponent, called the people in Barrios\u2019 camp \u201ctraitors\u201d and even claimed to be the \u201cring master\u201d to the \u201ccircus\u201d that the press conference morphed into. <\/p>\n
Barrios responded by calling Garcia a \u201cpayaso,\u201d which is Spanish for \u201cclown.\u201d Barrios said he typically doesn\u2019t trash talk in such settings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it was just in the moment,\u201d Barrios said. \u201cI was really just over it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barrios also made it clear that the public fallout between Goossen and Garcia has not been a distraction as he enters his third title defense. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something that bothered me. It has nothing to do with me; it was nothing to do with what I\u2019m doing in the gym,\u201d Barrios said. \u201cJoe Goossen is definitely one of a kind, but he\u2019s been around these big fights where there\u2019s a lot of drama, so that\u2019s something he\u2019s very used to also. I\u2019m glad that part is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning political<\/p>\n
Before the KSAT Sports interview ended, Barrios was asked what he thinks about Garcia previously voicing his support for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to make things political. I\u2019m very vocal with what side I\u2019m with,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been with my people, standing for immigrants, standing for indigenous rights, standing for Black and brown injustices. I wish it wasn\u2019t a thought going into this fight but, at the same time, I am fighting somebody that has openly supported somebody that has made it very difficult for immigrants and brown families to just live peacefully.\u201d <\/p>\n
Read also:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Neither Mario Barrios nor Ryan Garcia want another loss on their professional record. That\u2019s what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6913,29245,9933,69759,69760,82,84,83,61575,69758],"class_list":{"0":"post-172632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ksat-sports-now","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-mario-barrios","12":"tag-ryan-garcia","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","15":"tag-san-antonio-news","16":"tag-southwest-high-school","17":"tag-t-mobile-arena"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}