Ryan Garcia, Joe Goosen: What happened to their relationship?

The relationship between fighter and trainer is one that requires trust more than anything else. The trainer is an extension of a fighter's family. What comes into the camp isn't supposed to ever come out. 

Enter the relationship between Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) and Joe Goosen as the former returns to action on Saturday night when he challenges Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title at The Ring: High Stakes from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, live and exclusive only on DAZN PPV.

Goosen won't be in Garcia's corner for the biggest fight of his career. He'll be in Barrios' corner for the first time.

What happened between the two, as evidenced by January's press conference, when you could see Garcia was heartbroken and felt betrayed by his former trainer and the man he'd worked with on and off since he was 17. 

"How could you Joe?," Garcia said when Goosen was speaking at the presser. "That's messed up."

"Pardon," Goosen said to Garcia.

"I said, how could you? That's messed up," Garcia shot back to Goosen.

"What's messed up?," Goosen retorted.

"You know what I said," Garcia said back. "Just can't believe you're doing this to me. That's insane. You hurt my heart."

The Garcia-Goosen duo would begin their professional relationship in February 2022 when Garcia announced he would no longer be training with 2021 Trainer of the Year Eddy Reynoso.

Immediately after the split with Reynoso, Garcia knew he wanted to learn alongside the-then 68-year-old Goossen, as they had worked together when he was 17. They were still friends as they would talk regularly about his fights. 

"Not like I just picked up the phone one day and said, 'Hey, nice to talk to you after seven years'. It was more like, I just talked to you after my last fight," Garcia told DAZN News when this writer spent time with him, Goosen, and the fight team days before his fight with Emmanuel Tagoe in April 2022.

"I literally talked to him after every one of my fights because there's just a certain feel to it."

"I speak his language," Goosen told DAZN News in that same conversation.

"I'm gonna be honest with him and tell him what I thought about certain things. Would I have left my house, my home, my hearth, and home now? You're right. I probably would not have. I can't think of another person I would have done it for. Absolutely not. But it was the right decision that I made.

"It's been seven weeks since we've been together. It went by like it was three weeks. Most camps, three weeks feel like seven weeks. Of course, his Mom and Dad took care of me really well. Put me in a great spot. We were in a great place. Great gym. Everything worked out."

The Ring

Even with the long relationship Garcia had with Team Canelo, things looked different with Garcia being with Goosen. He looked more loose and relaxed than he ever had going into a fight. 

"I had a great time at camp, honestly. This is just the best balance of camp I've ever had," Garcia admitted.

"Not only was the training good (and) hard, it was just a good time—everything we did. Go eat, great time. Train, good time. But the one thing I like about Joe is that he's like me. 

"Once we're locked in, there's nothing else. We're all in. We go balls deep. We continue to do it. It's not like one day. It's every single day. We're in it all the way as much as we can. We live every ounce, and that's why I love training for a guy that's going to do what I do, because I almost let it overcome me, overtake me. I just dissolve into what I'm doing, and he does the same thing.

"That makes me want to go harder because now I have somebody right on the side of me ready to f—g go in at any time, anywhere. We're f—g on it. That's something I really appreciate. Joe, if I need a run, if I say 'let's go run at 11:30 (pm)', I know he's up. He's there. If it's pouring rain, I'm running. He was there. You know me. I'm running in a flood. I'm doing high knees. I'm like, 'Oh s—t. Alright, well, we've got to keep going. Got to get the run-in,' he was right there.

"So there's just moments like that, that you say to yourself like, 'Oh s—t, I got a guy like me right next to me.' That's even better." 

The then-23-year old went in and dominated Tagoe from start to finish. He dropped Tagoe in the second round and went on to win a lopsided decision against a guy who didn't come to fight and wanted nothing more than to say he survived against Garcia. A good start to what looked like it could be a long-term relationship. 

Garcia returned to the ring three months later in July 2022 and wiped out Javier Fortuna with a sixth-round knockout. 

The goal for Goosen when he and Garcia linked up was a mega fight with Gervonta Davis. Goosen felt Garcia had the remedy to take Davis out. Through the desire to be the best, Garcia willed the fight to come to fruition in April 2023 in what was at the time, the biggest PPV audience in many years.

Garcia had his moments and wobbled Davis early on. But a perfect crushing body shot in the seventh round by Davis sent Garcia crumbling to the canvas, and came the first loss of his career.

To the surprise of many, a little more than a week after the Davis fight, Garcia fired Goosen. Reasons were unknown at the time.  

Rumours have circulated over the years as to why Garcia released Goosen. Suggestions have been made that Goosen was the rumored mole that Garcia had suffered a rib injury in training camp, so Davis knew to pound that area. Some have said Garcia never fully bought into Goosen's training regime.

Currently, no one knows why, and Garcia further fueled those flames with his comments last month at the press conference. Perhaps the world will find out the truth this week. 

Nonetheless, Garcia doesn't seem too concerned with Goosen being in Barrios' corner on Saturday night. 

"I think it was a missed chess move," Garcia told DAZN's Chris Mannix on the Barrios-Goosen partnership. "I don't think it was a good chess move. But we'll see. 

"I just don't think it's a good fit for him. I don't. I f— with Bob (Santos, Barrios former trainer). Bob was a good trainer. So we'll see. Maybe he'll prove me wrong."

Will Garcia and Goosen kiss and make up? Only time will tell.

Watch Barrios vs. Garcia only on DAZN PPV

The  WBC welterweight world title is on the line this Saturday - Feb 21 - as Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia go toe-to-toe, exclusively on DAZN. Buy the PPV as a one-off cost or get included with DAZN Ultimate Tier. 

For more information, pricing and to buy, click here.