Mario Barrios: Born and bred for a life inside the boxing ring

The Sept. 28 pay-per-view affair between Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter is enticing, but the world will be introduced to the talents of Mario Barrios.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, Errol Spence Jr. vs. Shawn Porter will be the headliner of the FOX Sports PBC pay-per-view card. It’s an intriguing welterweight matchup, but undefeated super lightweight Mario Barrios (24-0, 16 KOs) fights on the undercard. He’s ready to show the world why he thinks he’s the next big thing in the division.

When talking to Barrios, he seems too nice to be a boxer. He’s courteous, respectful towards his opponent, and avoids trash talk, but he’s been bred to thrive in the ring.

Barrios’ inherited his fighting spirit from his mother, Isabel. She had unrealized dreams of being a boxer, but life had different plans for Isabel.

“She’s not a shy person especially when it comes to confrontation,” Barrios told FanSided. “Me and my sisters called her momma bear. She’s never let anybody mess with us. It doesn’t matter the situation. She’s always been very protective.

“She was interested in boxing when she was younger. She always wanted to learn, but of course, at the time, women boxing, it wasn’t a thing.”

Boxing wasn’t an option for Isabel, but her dreams passed on to her daughter Selina and Mario who started training in early adolescence. When Isabel moved to San Antonio, TX when Barrios was just three or four, his boxing destiny began.

Barrios, along with his oldest sister, found their way into a local gym and flourished. Surprisingly, it was Selina who showed the most natural talent as a boxer. Selina is two years older than Barrios, and she was too strong and skilled for Barrios to spar.

“I wish I was able to be one of her sparring partners,” said Barrios of Selina. “My sister was a natural when she began. She has this ferociousness in her that wasn’t seen a lot, especially in females. She was able to dominate a lot of her amateur fights. Even in sparring, she would have to spar guys. I was always too small to even get in there with her.”

In his early teens, Barrios wasn’t physically imposing, but he was skilled. He first realized that he had a future in boxing when he won the National PAL tournament in back to back years.

“I won both years back to back and just dominated,” recalled Barrios. “That was around the time I started to gain a lot of attention. I was making a lot of noise. That was the time where it struck people that I might become something for the people of San Antonio.”

Over the next few years, Barrios amazed everyone when he started to grow physically. The 5-foot-5 teenager eventually became a 6-foot young man. He quickly went from being a small fighter to a giant in his division. He made his professional debut in 2013 as a light featherweight.

“It worked to my advantage always being a smaller fighter,” said Barrios. “I was a very good technical inside fighter. As I stretched out having that knowledge to fight on the inside, learning how to use my reach and length to my advantage really helped me out the most.”

Barrios made his bones in the super featherweight division, but outgrew the division and struggled to make weight. He could have fought for a title as a super featherweight, but he knew the weight drain was impacting his performance in the ring. Barrios made a number of decisions that altered the path of his career for the better. Along with surpassing his division, he sought advanced knowledge as a boxer.

Barrios’ father Martin stepped aside as his trainer. There was no animosity in the move. He thought that Barrios needed more expertise in order to advance in boxing.

"It was my 14th or 15th fight and my dad and manager talked about it and my dad wanted me to get some work with a trainer that had been at that stage. I give my dad credit. He took me as far as he could. He taught me everything that he could possibly teach me. He wanted me to continue learning, continue evolving. My manager connected me with Virgil Hunter. He felt our styles went hand in hand."

With one of the best boxing trainers in the world in his corner, Barrios followed Hunter’s advice and moved up to super lightweight where he fights now. It was more of a mandate than advice.

“Virgil Hunter said that if me and him were going to start working together he only had one condition and that was we move up to 140,” said Barrios.

Today, Barrios is rated by Boxrec.com as the 46th best super lightweight in the world, but he’s opening lots of eyes with his body of work. He’s riding an eight-fight KO streak, and he’s only getting better.

On the undercard of the Spence vs. Porter card, Barrios arguably faces the toughest test of his career against Batyr Akhmedov (7-0, 6 KOs) for the vacant WBA “regular” junior welterweight title who’s also undefeated. If Barrios wins in style, then his stock is going to skyrocket.

Barrios is confident he’s going to take care of Akhmedov. He believes he has what it takes to be the best super lightweight in the world.

“This fight will put me right there for a mandatory shot at the title,” said Barrios. “This is gonna put the champions on notice that I’m right there knocking on the door. After this fight, I will be more than willing to jump in right away with one of the champions.”