Ryan Garcia Dominates Mario Barrios, Claims First World Championship

Ryan Garcia electrified the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas last night. WBC Welterweight Champion Mario Barrios found himself on the canvas in the opening minute. Garcia is best known for his left hook, the right hand did the heavy lifting last night. He threw it down the middle, he looped it, and used the uppercut well to keep Barrios’s hands at home. It was a complete performance and now opens the possibility for some major fights. Garcia called out Shakur Stevenson and said he would love to have a rematch with Devin Haney. Conor Benn was also present in the arena trying to make his interest known.

This performance erases the poor performance vs Rolly Romero and helps restore his image post-Haney and the PED test failure. Garcia who has been prone to odd behavior was very classy in his post fight interview. He seems eager to get back out there and make big fights. Oscar De La Hoya was visibly excited during the post fight interview as well and sees Ryan as the guy everyone is going to be lining up to face. He still has him as his fighter for two fights but the offers will definitely come in from Golden Boy Promotions’ rivals including Zuffa Boxing.

Mario Barrios was unable to get anything working. He kept his right hand up to defend the hook and Garcia kept tagging him with the right. When Barrios attempted to get inside and make a fight of it he was met with the left hook. Barrios survived the heavy blows and did not revisit the canvas again but was unable to win rounds. The judges had the fight wide with scores of 120-107, 118-109, and 119-108. Trainer Joe Goosen also comes out of this with some egg on his face. Goosen trained Garcia for three fights including his high profile loss to Gervonta Davis. The “traitor” label had been placed on Goosen for training Barrios. While I don’t put much thought into that, Garcia and his fans did and this fight has been viewed through the lens of Goosen vs Garcia. Goosen took the L last night though I’m not sure the corner would have made much of a difference.

Post fight thoughts:

I again underestimated Ryan Garcia and predicted wrong just as I did with the Devin Haney fight. Garcia impressed me with his ability to execute the game plan and fought at a high level for twelve rounds. He was classy in the post fight interviews and with his call outs. He seems to have fulfilled his potential and showed maturity. I wrote some not very nice things about Garcia and his character and I am beginning to re-think my position. What’s done is done and hopefully Garcia can continue the redemption tour and secure the big fights and live up to his potential.

As for Mario Barrios it is back to the drawing board. He is now 0-1-2 since being elevated to full WBC Champion and his performance did little to inspire much excitement. He has name value having faced three major stars of the sport in Garcia, Davis and Manny Pacquiao and fought on the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson undercard. Unfortunately, Mario has not been able to reclaim the momentum he had after defeating Yordenis Ugas in a fight that seemed to position him in the upper echelon at welterweight.

Highlights

Undercard

-Gary Antuanne Russell successfully defended his WBA super lightweight championship with a twelve round unanimous decision in a hotly contested bout with Andy Hiraoka. The decision was wider than the fight, there are some robbery calls. There was a point deduction for low blows in the tenth round, the final one was a bad foul.

-Frank Martin and Nahir Albright fight to a ten round unanimous draw with three scores of 95-95. Regarded as the fight of the night, New Jersey’s own Nahir Albright rocked Frank Martin in the tenth round and had him holding on. There were some fierce exchanges in this fight. Martin was a strong odds favorite following his rebound from the Tank Davis loss and Albright had yet another strong underdog performance.

-Bektemir Melikuziev defeats Sena Agbeko by 7th round TKO: Bek the Bully won his tenth consecutive fight following his stoppage defeat to Gabriel Rosado. Bek dropped Agbeko in the seventh round and continued to land the left hand. He countered and led and began to rock Agbeko as early as the fourth round. Bek notched another impressive showing as he continues his pursuit toward a title shot at super middleweight. He is ranked in all four sanctioning bodies with his highest ranking, #2 with the WBA.

Undercard Highlights