Polarizing prizefighter Ryan Garcia challenges Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight boxing championship on Saturday, Feb. 21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas atop a Golden Boy Promotions and TBG Promotions card.
According to him, it’ll be the last he does so under an Oscar de la Hoya-organized banner. Following this fight, he says, he’ll be a free agent.
De la Hoya’s Golden Boy has played a pivotal role in Garcia’s biggest events to date — long before his WBC interim lightweight title win over Luke Campbell in 2021, through his seventh-round knockout loss to Gervonta Davis, and into his fights with Oscar Duarte, Devin Haney, and Rolly Romero.
Regardless, the relationship is a turbulent one.
Through his rise to prominence, Garcia, 27, repeatedly clashed with Golden Boy brass over apparent inactivity, mental health breaks, and public criticism with the fighter questioning de la Hoya alternating support, and frustration.
Barrios, 30, may be the champion but he hasn’t actually won a fight in almost two years, splitting a draw with Abel Ramos in 2024 before a majority draw with Manny Pacquiao in one of 2025’s best events at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Now, he’ll hope it’s third time a charm this weekend, when he puts the belt on the line again for the bout with Garcia, after other fights involving Richardson Hitchins against Duarte, Gary Antuanne Russell versus Andy Hiraoka, and Frank Martin against Nahir Albright.
If Garcia has his way, though, he not only wrests the title from Barrios’s waist, but perhaps walks from de la Hoya as a champion, too — but albeit into a challenging marketplace when even prominent promotional rivals struggle to secure enough dates to satisfy large rosters.
As he said on the One Night With Steiny podcast:
“I am currently [with Golden Boy] but after this fight I’ll … be a free agent.”
Garcia has attempted to fight outside of Golden Boy’s remit before, notably with an exhibition to circumvent a temporary ban from boxing in which he’d box Rukiya Anpo in an unofficial bout in Japan.
At the time, Golden Boy sent a statement to Boxing Social that the Los Angeles-headquartered company had “exclusive rights” to Garcia’s fights.
Though no statement has yet been made about the current situation, it is believed de la Hoya’s firm retains matching rights on Garcia’s bouts beyond this upcoming event with Barrios.
