But was it his best performance? He says no. Garcia still holds his seventh-round knockout of Luke Campbell in high regard five years after their back-and-forth clash.

“I’m always going to love the Luke Campbell one,“ Garcia said during his post-fight press conference. “That's one that's always skipped in my heart that I had to fight through, got knocked down, was dazed, so that was always going to be up there for me. This (the Barrios victory) was my most mature performance, for sure.”

Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) overcame a second-round knockdown to drop and stop the 2012 Olympic gold medalist with a left hook to the liver in 2021. He didn’t face such adversity against Barrios (29-3-2, 18 KOs), as he won a one-sided unanimous decision in the main event of “The Ring: High Stakes” on DAZN PPV at T-Mobile Arena to become a world champion for the first time in his career. The win was also Garcia’s first since 2023.

Garcia hit the ground running, dropping Barrios 23 seconds into the fight with an overhand right. His advantages in speed and power were immediately evident and became the theme of the fight, as he consistently landed flush shots.

The 27-year-old from California rocked Barrios twice in the fifth round, but couldn’t find the fight-ending blow. Garcia said he hurt his right hand in the sixth or seventh round, but still managed to outbox the 30-year-old San Antonio native down the stretch and coasted to the final bell.

“My speed was on point,” Garcia said. “My jab was on point. A lot of things were on point. I pretty much did what I was doing in camp to everybody. I realized that I'm really faster than everybody.

“‘Why am I even moving? I can stay right there [and] counter. Why do I need to move? I'm quick.’ When I'm in shape and on fire, I'm really quick.”

Garcia outlanded Barrios 185 to 106 in total punches and 103 to 43 in power shots, according to CompuBox. He won by scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109.