SAN ANTONIO – The pressure, as far as Ryan Karl can tell, all lies on Mario Barrios.
The 25-year-old Barrios is the fighter defending his title Saturday night at the same venue where he graduated from high school, before an adoring throng of his hometown fans. If Barrios beats Karl, he’ll become the first boxer from San Antonio to successfully defend a world title.
The unbeaten Barrios also is listed as a 25-1 favorite to conquer Karl on the Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz undercard at Alamodome (Showtime Pay-Per-View; 9 p.m. ET; $74.99). The 28-year-old Karl has won three straight bouts, but he has lost by technical knockout twice in the past 3½ years.
Karl (18-2, 12 KOs) senses boxing fans perceive him as an easy opponent for Barrios (25-0, 16 KOs), but that only has motivated the Milano, Texas, native and enhanced his confidence.
“It’s relaxing, to be honest with you,” Karl told krikya360.com. “I’m not expected to go out there and win. It takes all the pressure off me and puts it on him. And so, I’m gonna go out there and perform my best, and I’ll be relaxed doing it. I’ve got a lot of people coming in, but I just send them to TicketMaster. But it’s definitely gonna be more stressful for him because it is his hometown and stuff like that. He’s expected to perform. He's expected to be at the top of his game. But he’s got a live dog in there with him, so it’s gonna be a little different than he expects.”
The second half of Barrios’ last fight definitely was different than Barrios expected. He boxed Batyr Akhmedov well during their first half of their 12-round, 140-pound title bout in September 2019, but Barrios admittedly “gassed out” in the second half and allowed Akhmedov to make their fight very competitive on the Errol Spence Jr.-Shawn Porter undercard at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Barrios knocked Uzbekistan’s Akhmedov to the canvas twice, once in the fourth round and again the 12th, and won a unanimous decision that caused controversy.
Karl thought their fight should’ve been scored a draw. He noticed Barrios took a lot of punishment in that bout, yet he praised his upcoming opponent for the toughness Barrios displayed that night.
“I think Mario’s a good fighter,” Karl said. “He has a lot of good qualities about him. I think that, you know, he has some skill to get to where he is. He’s dangerous. He’s got good power, he’s got good height, he’s got good reach. He’s got a lot of good things about him. But I just think we’ve got some things that we’re gonna expose, that we’re better at than he is. That’ll make the difference. We have a very good game plan coming into this fight.”
Karl is looking forward to making the 2½-hour drive home from San Antonio to Milano on Sunday with a world title to show off to his two sons, ages 6 and 1.
“There’s never been a champion from San Antonio that has defended his title,” Karl said. “Every champion from San Antonio has lost in his first title defense. On Saturday night, it won’t be any different.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.