BARRIOS vs GARCIA (FIGHT ANALYSIS)
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 21 Feb 2026
On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada at the T-Mobile Center two division champion and current WBC welterweight (147lbs) champion Mario Barrios (29-2-2, 18KOs) defends his title against the popular former WBC interim lightweight (135lbs) champion Ryan Garcia (24-2,1NC, 20KOs).
All eyes will be on this match which the Promotion has billed as a “High Stakes“ match up. Why? The winner of this multimillion-dollar fight will have options for another multimillion-dollar fight against another high-profile opponent. There is a rumored title unification fight agreement for Barrios against WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney if he defeats Garcia. Garcia is coming off a defeat against WBA welterweight champion Rolly Romero in his last fight.
Garcia is yet to win a major world title in his 27 professional fight career. For Garcia first attempt at a major world title he challenged then WBC jr welterweight champion (140lbs) Devin Haney but was unable to qualify for the title because he did not make the 140lbs weight limit during the official weigh in 24hrs before the bout (weighed 143.2) so he did not qualify to win the title even if he won the bout. He defeated Devin Haney, but tested positive for a banned substance called Ostarine. The New York Athletic Commission changed Garcia’s win over Haney to a “No Contest”, suspended him for a year, and fined him 1.1 million dollars. In his second attempt at a major world title for the WBA welterweight title, Rolly Romero outboxed him and won a decision victory.
Garcia’s fight against Barrios will be his third attempt at a major world title. If Garcia defeats Barrios, there are many possibilities for “Big Fights”. There is talk of a “catchweight fight” between he and newly crowned WBO jr. welterweight (140lbs) champion Shakur Stevenson. A “catchweight fight” is a fight where two fighters usually from two different weight divisions agree to fight at an agreed upon weight different from their division. In the case of Shakur (140lbs) and Garcia (147lbs), the rumored “catchweight fight” would be at 145lbs.
A fight with Shakur and Garcia at this point is all hypothetical. Even if Garcia were to defeat Barrios the question remains on a rehydration clause which would be a sticking point in negotiations. There is no doubt in this Writer’s mind that after the official weighin and by fight night when Garcia faces Barrios, Garcia will be well above the welterweight limit of 147lbs. Perhaps Garcia will be close to 160lbs. To be fair, both fighters will likely be close to 160lbs, in this Writer’s opinion.
Would Shakur waive the rehydration clause, or would he insist on one for a Garcia fight? Again, all this is hypothetical, not to mention agreements for the financial percentages to each fighter, ring size, glove size, etc. Aside from the potential fight opportunities that both fighters have regardless of who prevails Saturday night there is a very interesting backdrop story for both Barrios and Garcia. Both Fighters have had multiple fight Trainers in their professional careers, and both have been trained by respected fight Trainer Joe Goosen.
Goosen currently trains Barrios and will be in his corner giving instructions when he defends against Garcia. Goosen has trained many world champions in the past and has worked with Ryan early in his career and stopped working with Ryan after his loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
During the first fight press conference to officially announce Barrios vs Garcia, both Henry Garcia (Ryan’s Dad, Trainer, and Manager) expressed disappointment that Goossen after having worked with his son chose to accept the assignment of working with Barrios against his son. Ryan also expressed disappointment and hurt feelings.
Goosen simply said he’s a fight trainer and his duty is to his current fighter (Barrios) to help him win his fight. In another interview on Fight Hub during the last press conference before the official weigh in on Friday, Goosen stated he agreed to work with Barrios before he signed to defend his title against Garcia and Barrios team was considering other options (potential opponents).
Goosen in Barrios’s corner giving him instructions is very interesting. Of course, Goosen can’t fight Garcia for Barrios. However, with Goosen’s instructions, can Barrios maximize Garcia’s weaknesses and neutralize his greatest weapon, his left hook? Can Goosen come up with a game plan, if executed well, to defeat Garcia? Or will Garcia trained by his father (Henry) be so motivated that he wills himself to defeat Barrios and he finally becomes a world champion in the most important fight of his career?
These intriguing questions will be answered on Saturday night. What does Ryan Garcia have to do to defeat Mario Barrios?
Reports from the Ryan Garcia camp are that he is looking very strong and has been hurting his sparring partners and having had to replace them. In order to defeat Barrios, Ryan must land his punches. If the punches don’t hit the intended target, they are meaningless. In Ryan’s last fight against Rolly Romero, he was unable to land his punches to hurt Romero. Barrios will no doubt keep his hands held high and stay away from Garcia’s punches, in particular Garcia’s left hook. Garcia has to throw body punches and look for openings to land his punches against Barrios. Garcia has to be in the best physical shape of his life and be prepared to keep the pressure on Barrios for the entire 12 rounds non-stop. If his left hook (his best punch) does not land the way he wants he has to use a good jab, throw good combinations, and have good defense as he tries to outwork Barrios to secure a decision if he is unable to knock Barrios out.
What does Mario Barrios need to do to defeat Ryan Garcia? The blueprint to defeat Garcia was provided by Gervonta “Tank” Davis (TKO) and by Rolly Romero (Unanimous decision) who both defeated Ryan. There is no doubt that Trainer Joe Goosen has devised an excellent strategy for Barrios to win. Barrios has to establish an excellent jab to disrupt Garcia’s rhythm. He must land his punches first. Barrios must show that he is also strong and can also hurt Garcia. He must make Garcia respect his power at the beginning of the fight.
Barrios will earn that respect by throwing combinations with “bad intentions” and using good foot work to evade Garcia’s punches. If Garcia is unable to land his punches like in the Romero fight it could be a long and discouraging night for Garcia. Barrios must circle away from Garcia’s left hand thereby neutralizing it. Barrios must keep his hands (guard) up but may need to fight certain periods of the fight to earn Garcia’s respect. Barrios must also throw many body shots as it has been proven that Garcia does not take body shots well and he does not protect his body well from punches as was seen in the Tank Davis fight which he lost. The first few rounds will be very interesting between these two fighters.
This Writer picks Mario Barrios to defeat Ryan Garcia via 8 round TKO.
Boxing Notes
It was recently reported through various news outlets that former unified welterweight champion (WBA, WBC, IBF) Errol Spence will
return to boxing after almost 3 years since his loss to Terrance Crawford to fight former WBO jr middleweight champion Tim Tszyu sometime in June 2026 in Australia for a reported 2.5 million dollars. There are also reports that Spence can make twice as much fighting a top ten junior middleweight at AT&T stadium in Texas, which is his hometown. It will be interesting to see to what Spence decides…Former undisputed Jr middleweight champion Jermell Charlo is ready and willing to fight either Jaron Ennis or Vergil Ortiz if the fight between the two can’t be signed. Charlo also is willing to fight Spence. Hopefully Charlo gets his wish…Newly crowned WBO jr welterweight champion Shakur Stevenson was stripped of his WBC lightweight (135lbs) championship over a reported disagreement over sanctioning fees not paid to the WBC. Prior to winning the WBO title Shakur said it was his intention to return to the 140lbs division which is the home of former WBA 135 champion and face of Boxing Gervonta “Tank” Davis. Tank is currently facing some legal problems outside of boxing but is likely to return to boxing sometime this summer or the fall. Fight fans don’t really care whether Shakur has a title or not. All they care about is that Shakur keeps winning his fights. The WBA title is currently vacant because Tank is unable to defend. WBO 135 champ Abdullah Mason wants to fight Shakur. IBF champ Raymond Muratalla also wants to fight Shakur. Therefore, if Shakur does not secure a “Big Fight” north of 140lbs division he can secure a “Big Fight” at 135lbs at lightweight. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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