Mario Thomas Barrios (born May 18, 1995)[1] is an American professional boxer who has held the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion since June 2024.
[5] On October 31, 2020, in front of his hometown crowd at Alamodrome in San Antonio, Texas on the undercard of Gervonta Davis vs. Léo Santa Cruz, Barrios defended his WBA (Regular) title with a sixth-round technical knockout victory against Ryan Karl.
After the cut was examined by the ringside doctor, the fight resumed and the two men immediately went hard after each other, until Barrios dropped Karl during with a pair of left hooks to the chin during a fierce exchange.
Their bout took place at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on 5 February 2022, with their fight also serving as a WBC welterweight world title eliminator.
Santiago managed to bravely beat the 10-count and got back up on his feet, but, with blood in smelt in the air, Barrios bull-rushed his obviously still-hurting opponent and began landing a barrage of combinations on him.
Much to the surprise of many, however, the odds were proven wrong on fight-night itself with Barrios battering and even dropping Ugás twice—once in the second round and once again in the twelfth—en route to a unanimous decision victory over the Cuban with scores of 118-107 twice and 117-108 all in his favor.
[12] On the 4th of May, 2024, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, Barrios would go on to make the first defense of his WBC (Interim) Welterweight Title against Argentina's own heavy-handed Fabian "TNT" Maidana.
Barrios made the first defense of his World Boxing Council welterweight title against the hard-hitting and WBC 8th ranked (as of the 21st of October, 2024) 33-year-old Mexican-American veteran Abel Ramos on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson undercard at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX on November 15, 2024.
From the 10th onward, Barrios, with his nose busted and his left eye swelling a little, regained his composure and returned to maximizing his superior range and bombarding Ramos with jabs and power shots from a distance.