CALABASAS, Calif. — In January, Joe Goossen sat on a stage looking bewildered. Goossen, the longtime boxing trainer, knew the press conference to announce Mario Barrios’s welterweight title defense against Ryan Garcia could be awkward. A few years ago Goossen was on Garcia’s side of the dais. Now he was training Barrios to beat him. There could be some ribbing, Goossen reasoned. What he didn’t expect was Garcia spending most of the hourlong presser attacking him. He called Goossen a traitor, while suggesting that Goossen may have leaked sensitive information before his 2023 fight with Gervonta Davis. When the event finished, Goossen walked over to me and asked, “What was that?”
Weeks later, Garcia grins at the memory. “I know who Joe is and he knows who I am,” says Garcia. “And that’s why I knew that was going to fuck with him.” It’s mid-February and Garcia is sitting on a training table inside Craft Boxing Club, a windowless gym tucked inside an office park. He has just finished sparring, which comes with the obligation of snapping a few photos with his opponents. A line of them waited for Garcia as he climbed out of the ring. Garcia’s loss to Rolando Romero last spring may have halted his ascent to the top of the 147-pound division. But it has done little to diminish his star power.
