Per reports, Ryan Garcia and his trainer Joe Goossen are no longer working together as of the beginning of this month. The catalyst towards this move may have been the lack of support that Garcia received from his promoters and trainer in the wake of his match with Gervonta Davis. Noticeably, none of the aforementioned men ― who had stood by Garcia since his April 22 fight with Davis was announced ― were present at the post-match press conference.
Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) and Joe Goossen had banded together in February of 2022 and had two fights prior to facing Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s) on April 22nd. With the two having worked for over a year, it seems that Ryan Garcia’s first career loss has sparked this drastic turn of events which ends a partnership that showed no sign of breaking prior to the clash between Garcia and Gervonta Davis.
Though Joe Goossen not appearing at the post-match presser between Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis might have been the primary reason this all happened, the rumors of a mole ― who has yet to be found ― within the training camp of Ryan Garcia who divulged that the 24-year old American fighter had suffered an injury to the body during his camp, may also be stacked up as a potential reason for the split.
Several days before, Ryan Garcia had hinted at a drastic change in his team after remarking on his Twitter account that he was “taking time to think about a lot of things”, and has now clearly followed through with his decision. Though Garcia himself has yet to speak about the reports regarding him and Joe Goossen, the American contender seemed to confirm the news by retweeting the report that suggested he had left his trainer.
Joe Goossen, a 2005 inductee of the California Boxing Hall of Fame, has had more than two decades of experience in training fighters, including the likes of Riddick Bowe, Diego Corrales and Sergey Lipinets (17-2-1, 13 KO’s), but seemed to have gravitated towards commentating (instead of training fighters) for PBC fights in the last couple of years ― and is currently also involved as a commentator for the TCL competition/organization, but picked up his training ways when Ryan Garcia came into the picture.
Ryan Garcia will be looking for his third coach in little over a year following his recent separation from Joe Goossen and Eddy Reynoso who he left the year prior. With Garcia already having stated his full intentions to resume his career at 140 pounds ― a weight at which he had fought twice before, it will be curious to see where his path takes him in the ensuing months of 2023 where he will be faced with a slew of tough opponents including former British undisputed Super Lightweight champion Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KO’s), WBC champion Regis Prograis (28-1, 24 KO’s) and former unified champion Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KO’s).
