Ryan Garcia Fight drama centers on trainer Joe Goossen ahead of Las Vegas showdown
The ryan garcia fight has been overshadowed by a dispute over trainer Joe Goossen, with much of the buildup framed as a confrontation between Garcia’s camp and the Hall of Fame coach rather than strictly between Garcia and Mario Barrios at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ryan Garcia Fight centers on Goossen dispute
Promoters billed the bout as the main event of The Ring: High Stakes card, but the way Ryan Garcia and his father and trainer, Henry Garcia, have talked during the fight buildup “makes it more like the bout is between Ryan and Hall of Fame trainer Joe Goossen, ” the campaign narrative has stressed; the event is scheduled for 8 p. m. ET on DAZN PPV, with free preliminaries beginning at 5: 45 p. m. ET.
That framing is concrete and repeated: Ryan’s camp has repeatedly raised Goossen as the central issue, and Ryan himself has labeled Goossen a traitor, putting the long-running personal conflict at the center of public attention ahead of the main event against Mario Barrios.
Goossen moved from Garcia corner to train Barrios
Goossen is manning Barrios’s corner at the fight, while also being Garcia’s former chief second, a fact the teams and media have emphasized; Garcia fired Goossen after his seventh-round knockout loss to Gervonta Davis in 2023, and that history is a clear anchor in current tensions.
Henry Garcia made the trainer switch a focal point from the start. He raised Goossen at the kickoff news conference in January, and the topic has continued to surface in interviews and public comments in the weeks leading up to the fight at T-Mobile Arena.
Henry Garcia’s comments and the personal angle
Henry Garcia has been explicit about his reaction to the matchup with Goossen in Barrios’s corner. “When I first found out that Joe Goossen was going to train Mario Barrios, I was taken aback, ” he said at the January kickoff news conference, adding that he asked, “What the heck is going on here? Why would a coach that trained my son all of a sudden turn around and train somebody else to go against my son?”
Henry Garcia continued with concrete accusations about motive and respect, saying, “I find that very disrespectful and it just isn’t right, ” and noting that Goossen had told him before that he sometimes trains someone then later trains an opponent. Henry also voiced confidence in his son’s condition for the matchbox: “I’m going to tell you this right now, Ryan is 100 percent. ”
Those remarks, paired with Ryan’s own reference to Goossen as a traitor, have kept the trainer storyline in headlines and conversation even as both fighters prepare to meet in the ring for the main event against Mario Barrios.
Card details and what’s next
The fight will headline The Ring: High Stakes card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the main event set for 8 p. m. ET on DAZN PPV and free preliminaries beginning at 5: 45 p. m. ET; a full-length replay of the weigh-in has been circulated in build-up coverage. That schedule is the immediate milestone for both camps and for fans following the pre-fight debate centered on Goossen.
With the bell for the main event approaching, the next confirmed event is the fight night at T-Mobile Arena when Ryan Garcia and Mario Barrios square off at 8 p. m. ET on DAZN PPV, and the public focus is likely to remain on whether the personal history between Garcia’s team and Joe Goossen changes how either corner approaches the bout.
