MEXICAN-AMERICAN Mario Barrios, who battled Manny Pacquiao to a draw in July 2025, is set to return to the ring on February 21 to defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight championship.
Barrios was open to a rematch with Pacquiao and the WBC was ready to sanction it, even ranking Pacquiao No. 1 in its rankings shortly after the fight.
However, when Pacquiao started negotiating for a fight with WBA welterweight champion Rolly Romero, the WBC decided to give another challenger the go-signal to challenge Barrios.
The challenger turned out to be American Ryan Garcia.
The WBC approved a fight between Barrios and Garcia even though Garcia was previously unranked in the organization’s 147-pound division.
Predictably, the WBC was pelted with criticisms. Truth be told, the WBC has a way of mocking its procedure.
Pacquiao was inactive for four years and looked shopworn when he dropped a decision to Cuban Yordenis Ugas in August 2021. Still, the WBC approved Pacquiao’s July 2025 title fight with Barrios. The WBC ranked the inactive Pacquiao at No. 5 to justify the fight with Barrios. When the decision was roundly criticized, the WBC removed the ranking and claimed it was just a mistake.
The WBC is at it again by giving the unranked Garcia a shot at Barrios.
To justify the fight, the WBC inexplicably ranked Garcia at No. 4 in its latest rankings.
What did Garcia do to deserve a No. 3 ranking in the WBC’s welterweight division?
In April 2024, Garcia hammered Devin Haney in a fight that was fought at the contracted weight of 140 pounds or junior welterweight. Garcia showed up overweight and tested positive for the performance enhancing drug ostarine. Garcia’s victory over Haney was changed to a No Contest and he was meted a one-year suspension.
After one year, Garcia returned to boxing in May 2025 for a tune-up fight with Rolly Romero. From out of the blue, the WBA sanctioned their fight as one for the WBA welterweight title. Dig this: Neither fighter has fought at welterweight or 147 pounds. Oh, and Garcia was coming off a one-year suspension because of the positive drug test! How Garcia and Romero ended up fighting for the WBA welterweight crown despite not being welterweights remains a mystery to this day.
Garcia was heavily favored, but he never recovered after getting knocked down and lost by decision to Romero. The fight was an absolute snore-bore.
Garcia did not fight again after the disappointing performance against Romero. He instead underwent surgery to repair his hand which he allegedly injured before the Romero fight.
Lo and behold, Garcia is emerging from his cocoon and is heading straight to a title fight with WBC champion Barrios.
So, what did Garcia do to earn the title shot? Nothing.
When pressed to explain why Garcia is getting a shot at Barrios, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman claimed Garcia is an “elite boxer.”
Say that again, Mr. Sulaiman?
Garcia, the “elite boxer,” lost to huge underdog Romero in his last fight. Garcia was an 11-to-1 favorite but turned out to be dud. Garcia has not beaten anyone at 147 pounds and his last “victory”, at junior welterweight, was overturned because he took a performance enhancing drug.
Garcia, 24-2 with 20 knockouts, has really been a huge disappointment.
In the biggest fight of his career, Garcia was knocked out by in seven rounds by Gervonta “Tank” Davis in April 2023. Garcia was branded a “quitter” in the fight. So much with the “elite” fighter tag.
Garcia has looked good in the gym, but he has not parlayed the show of handspeed in his workouts into impressive performances in the ring.
Garcia is getting a title shot because of his marketability. The guy has 12 million followers on Instagram and over a million on X (formerly Twitter).
Garcia needs to walk the talk. Enough with the shenanigans.
Barrios, 29-2 with 18 knockouts, offers more discipline in the ring. He went undefeated in his first 26 fights before getting stopped in 11 rounds by Tank Davis in June 2021 in a fight for the WBA (regular) junior welterweight championship.
Barrios later moved up to welterweight and initially claimed the WBC “interim” crown by beating Ugas in September 2023. In June 2024, Barrios was promoted to full-time WBC champion after Terence Crawford vacated the belt to move up to junior middleweight.
Barrios is more familiar with the weight class and has faced the likes of Ugas and Keith Thurman. Compared to Garcia, Barrios also fared much better against Tank Davis. Barrios also went the full distance with the hard-punching Thurman in Feb. 2022.
Barrios is the slight favorite over Garcia. It will be a good fight if the “real” Ryan Garcia shows up on Feb. 21.