After a humbling loss, as he moves toward the February 21 title fight, Ryan Garcia appears to have limited room to reshape the narrative in his favor. That helps explain why, much like he did before facing Devin Haney, Garcia again chose to rattle Mario Barrios by getting under his skin. His opportunity arrived quickly. Barrios handed him material when he teamed up with Garcia’s former trainer, Joe Goossen. To the challenger, that decision represented a serious misstep.

“I think it was a missed chess move,” said Ryan Garcia during his recent face-off with Barrios. “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.”

On that note, Garcia argued that Barrios should have remained with his longtime trainer, Bob Santos. The decorated coach had been in the welterweight champion’s corner since his professional debut. Their partnership, which produced two world championships, most recently led to the draw against Manny Pacquiao last July.

Ryan Garcia‘s remarks came after Mannix posed the question that many observers had been asking. Of all the trainers available, why choose someone who had previously worked with Garcia? The welterweight titlist maintained that hiring Joe Goossen had nothing to do with his upcoming opponent.

He said he would have welcomed the veteran trainer’s services regardless of whom he was scheduled to face. That explanation prompted Mannix to ask Garcia whether he believed Goossen joining Barrios’ corner was simply a coincidence.

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“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. Yeah, I think I think it was—I don’t think it was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this to try to throw him off.’ I’ll be real,” Garcia replied, adding, “We’ll see, though. Maybe he can prove me wrong. See, right. That’s the whole point of this.”

Garcia and his father reacted strongly when they first saw Goossen seated beside Mario Barrios at the kickoff press conference weeks ago.

Ryan Garcia fumes as former trainer links up with Mario Barrios

“So, we’ve been studying a lot of them. One thing I do want to mention, you know, is that they got three guys that used to train me, not just Joe,” Garcia said at the time before mocking Goossen by pulling out a T-shirt that read, “I am a traitor.”

His father, later confirmed as his principal trainer for the fight, shared a similar reaction.

“When I first found out that Joe was going to go ahead and train Mario Barrios, I was taken aback,”  Henry Garcia said. “I’m not going to lie. I was thinking, well, what the heck’s 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? Um, I find that very disrespectful, and it just isn’t right, you know.”

While Garcia and his team’s emotional response is understandable, Barrios has not broken any rules by making the change. The champion has presented a measured explanation for his decision, and even if Garcia factors into the equation more than Barrios suggests, the move remains a calculated one.

From Barrios’ perspective, Garcia represents an unpredictable opponent. Although that fight ended controversially, Garcia knocked down a standout boxer in Devin Haney before suffering a decisive loss to Rolando Romero. From that perspective, turning to a trainer like Goossen, who understands Garcia’s tendencies inside the ring, is a logical step.

For Garcia, it may look like a poor strategic choice, but for Barrios it could prove to be a decisive advantage.