As Mario Barrios prepares for this weekend’s world title defense against Ryan Garcia, he talks to Ring Magazine about what he’s learned over the years and why he’ll leverage all of his experience into make a dominant showing over Garcia.
On why he hired Garcia’s former trainer Joe Goossen
“Looking back after the Pacquiao fight, there were just things that I wanted to get back to. It’s been a long journey for me but I feel like there’s been chapters in my career. Early on I was with Bob [Santos], he was like the main guy in my corner. Then I switched to Virgil [Hunter] for like six years in the Bay Area and I felt like that added a lot to my style. Then went back to Bob for like three — it was really just wanting to get back to the things that got me to this point in the first place, and just being with a coach who’s been there with plenty of fighters, has brought that out of plenty of fighters, and we were very familiar with Joe Goossen and what he’s capable of doing with fighters.”
On being a more well-rounded fighter at this point of his career
“I know with all that experience, I’m taking it into this fight. I’ve been in there with Tank who’s very explosive, very quick, with Pacquiao, very awkward, one of a kind. Thurman, great movement, big puncher. So, yeah, I’m just looking to use everything that got me to this point and then to make sure that I have a successful, a very one-sided title defense.”
On whether criticism for being a weak titleholder gets under his skin
“Not really. I learned early, very early on in my career that it doesn’t matter what you do, how you perform in there, it’s always going to be someone talking, someone saying something, someone trying to write your name off. I keep getting these big opportunities to make these big fights for a reason — ‘cause I do my job. I do my part, I stay in the gym, I stay ready and I just don’t say no to fights ‘cause I want to fight the best.”
On the benefit of Goossen having trained Garcia
“It’s been helpful but at the same time…his flaws have been shown in his performances, in his fights…He does have that insight to Ryan, so he knows how he thinks but from there we just work on what we need to for the fight.”
