Mario Barrios: record, next fight and profile →
Conor Benn obviously would welcome the fight that’s “personal” to him, a rescheduled domestic clash with Chris Eubank Jr., if Benn receives his British boxing license at the conclusion of the appellate process.
Mario Barrios was tired of being called a steppingstone. The unwanted nickname wasn’t some arbitrary alias that fans wanted to give him, but instead, they looked at his body of work.
Mario Barrios isn’t cut from the same cloth as some of his boxing contemporaries. The 28-year-old, ever since he was introduced to the violent sport, was never interested in eschewing the best fighters around. Instead, he believed that the only way he could improve was by challenging and pushing himself to the limit.
Few were giving him a chance. Considering that Giovanni Santillan has spent the majority of his career fighting in unwelcoming places against nondescript opponents, a large segment of the boxing world had no idea who he was. They were also clueless to his capabilities.
At this point, it’s almost hard to keep track of Eimantas Stanionis. Through practically no fault of his own, he’s been out of sight and out of mind.
Raise your hand if you believed that Mario Barrios would take care of business against Yordenis Ugas. Most weren’t expecting the 28-year-old to do much on September 30th. Sure Barrios is talented. He is, after all, a former 140-pound secondary titleholder, and has enough skills to trouble anyone. But for all of his abilities, in the two biggest moments of his career, he came up incredibly short.
Top welterweight contender Mario Barrios is backing Brian Mendoza to pull off an upset on Saturday (Sunday in Australia) when he faces WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu.
Mario Barrios might be a lot of things but one thing that he’s not, is afraid to get into a fistfight. He wasn’t scared to lose his undefeated record to Gervonta Davis. He didn't show any trepidation when he was asked to move up to a weight class he never competed in to take on Keith Thurman. He also wasn't unnerved when the name Yordenis Ugas slid across his desk.
For lack of better words, Mario Barrios was often used as a guinea pig. In 2021, Gervonta Davis saw the lanky San Antonio native as the perfect opportunity. Although he normally fought anywhere from 126 to 135 pounds, Davis opted to put on a bit of additional muscle to take him on. The result was a knockout victory in his favor before returning to the lower weights.
T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas - In a battle of former world champions, San Antonio’s Mario “El Azteca” Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) scored two knockdowns and earned the Interim WBC Welterweight Title with an impressive unanimous decision (117-108, 118-107 twice) over Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) in their pay-per-view undercard attraction.