CALABASAS, Calif. — The WBC welterweight championship belt is green and gold and weighs five or six pounds, but Ryan Garcia shed the weight of the world when he finally hooked it around his waist. Superstars built in boxing and beyond can lose their way in the Las Vegas lights.
Champions see their faces beam on the strip of marquees, again and again.
“There’s a new level of respect (as a world champion),” Garcia affirmed, cocksuredly but calmly, six months after he wrangled the title from Mario Barrios at T-Mobile Arena.
“(Observers) have a sense of ‘All right. Yeah, he’s legit. Like we can’t talk s—-.’”
For now.
With speed and power forged in his Victorville garage and a following forged with his cellular phone, Garcia (25-2, 20 knockouts) used Barrios to prove that he’s more than a trash-talking, punch-throwing Instagram model. His movie-star looks don’t mitigate the skills he continues to sharpen at 28, a first-time champion with amateur pedigree poised to defend his title Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
The stage is set for the SoCal kid with the jet black hair and the coffee eyes and the lightning left hook to shine on boxing’s biggest weekend against British star Conor Benn, his mandatory challenger. Arranged by Zuffa Boxing, the matchup is pegged to Mexican Independence Day, its festive weekend long anchored in Las Vegas by prize fighting’s top talents, earners and draws.
As featured attractions the last three-plus decades, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez (who filled Allegiant Stadium this time last year with Terence Crawford in their undisputed super middleweight championship bout) preceded Garcia, positioned with a win to score a showcase bout aligned next year with Cinco de Mayo. But losing as a sizable betting favorite — like he did a year ago in May to Rolando Romero for the WBA welterweight title in New York — would reinforce the unpredictability that has undercut his talent via wavering focus and a lust for temptation he’s working to tame.
Garcia says he’s fighting for his wife, Andrea, and children Rylie, Bella and Henry, his vices quelled — he’s publicly dignified bouts of substance abuse amid his struggles with mental health — as a champion growing, grounded by family, accustomed to fame.
Said Garcia at the spacious Craft Boxing Club, where he trained intermittently the last 10 weeks, shrouded by Los Angeles affluence and otherwise training in his living room: “You learn a lot throughout the years. How to react to things, how not to react to things and how to minimize distractions. You kind of get used to the chatter and know it’s all noise. And you just get to work and if everything is going good in training, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
A champion’s knowhow informs Garcia, whose burst, experience and prep coalesced with a rocket right hand and a first-round knockdown in his 120-107, 119-108, 118-109 win over Barrios. He fought with the measure he lacked in 2023 in his knockout loss to Gervonta Davis (at a 136-pound catchweight that depleted Garcia, agreeable in part for the payday while knowing its energy-zapping consequences) and the will he relented last year to Romero, who tamed his aggression with a second-down knockdown.
Title secured. Potential unfurled. Turnbuckle mounted in joy and relief.
“Now he knows the value of being a champion,” his father and trainer, Henry, explained. “… Going into the Barrios fight, the mentality was to be focused and say ‘I want to become champion.’ This camp is, ‘I need to stay as a champion.’ So, you protect it more. You value it more. … You have to appreciate (the title) and he understands that.”
Perhaps he does but he didn’t always, fumbling his first title shot — a 2024 challenge in New York of WBC junior lightweight champion Devin Haney, now the WBO welterweight champion — with a purposeful lack of regard for the scale and a drug test tainted by performance enhancement. He took the title off the table by missing the 140-pound limit by 3.2 pounds and took the upset win off his record by testing positive for ostarine, incurring a subsequent one-year suspension.
He was arrested the following month on suspicion of vandalizing a Beverly Hills hotel. The spotlight dimmed and the debts were paid. The charge was dismissed and lessons were learned, his flaccid showing with Romero notwithstanding.
“I think he removed a lot of distractions in his camp and his life in general,” said Garcia’s brother, Sean, 25 and booked to fight on the undercard, having trained beside him. “He knew what he was capable of and he knew what was required of him and he flipped a switch one day and he did it. Everybody was proud of him.”
Backed by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, Garcia insists he’ll KO Benn (25-1, 14 KOs) and his father insists he’s prime to fight with the vigor and verve he deployed against Barrios (against whom he was gifted a title shot) instead of the malaise uncovered by Romero. He focused on conditioning during training camp, logging long runs in Agoura Hills “which means the results will be a knockout,” his father said.
Added Henry: “I wish people could stop saying ‘Which version is Ryan going to be?’ Yes he was inconsistent at one time because boxers go through a lot at times. But — the version you’re going to see is the version that you saw with him against Barrios. Moving forward he can only get better because he learns from everything.”
Now to prove that opposite Benn, whose father, Nigel, was a two-weight world champ — and who has melted the muscle off his middleweight frame for the chance to steal Garcia’s shine.
Upset and dethroned by Crawford last year, Alvarez returns in Saudi Arabia next month (to challenge WBC super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli) at 36 and not much longer, if longer at all, for top billing in Las Vegas. This weekend could be the first for Garcia in a string of showcase dates as the sport’s top draw.
At stake with Garcia’s welterweight crown is the future of boxing’s most important night in its most iconic city.
“You won’t be disappointed. That’s for sure,” Garcia said.
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X.
