By: Sean Crose
“JUST ANNOUNCED,” Ryan Garcia posted on social medial Thursday morning. Above that post on Garcia’s X page was another post, one Garcia had shared from Boxing Kingdom. “Fight Announced,” it read. ” Ryan Garcia vs Mario Barrios. February 21st. WBC welterweight title.” Garcia also posted a video on social media, where he appeared to be signing a contract. “Boom,” he said while seemingly signing the document before him. “Here I go. Signed. I’m going to be fighting for the real WBC championship belt against Mario Barrios February 21st. Get ready, because I’m coming.” Beside Garcia was what looked like WBC world title belt.
Say this about Garcia, the man certainly knows how to draw attention to himself. He’s also squaring off against an interesting opponent this winter, if what he’s saying is true. Like Garcia, Barrios is a man looking for redemption after fighting an aging Manny Pacquiao to a draw earlier this year – in a fight some feel he lost. As for Garcia, his defeat last spring at the gloved fists of Rolly Romero took a degree of shine off his reputation as a high level boxer. And then of course there were the positive drug tests than led his victory over Devan Haney to be changed to a no contest.
While he earned as much fame on social media as he did in the ring, there’s no questioning that Garcia has been a hard hitting and fun to watch fighter in his career. A loss to Gervonta Davis didn’t particularly harm Garcia’s reputation, but bizarre behavior and those positive drug tests did. The loss to Romero in Times Square only served to add another question mark after Garcia’s name. A good performance against Barrios could go a long way to repairing the Californian’s rep. A loss, of course, would be catastrophic.
At twenty seven years of age, Garcia still has plenty of career ahead of him, if he so chooses to continue boxing. He’s never won a world title, after all, so lifting the WBC welterweight belt from Barrios would add a fresh new development to his boxing journey. And Barrios? He isn’t held in the highest of regards by fight watchers. He can turn things around in his own right if he does indeed meet and defeat Garcia in the professional prize ring. Again, this isn’t a bad matchup. Let’s see if it actually comes to fruition.
