Rafael Garcia is a legend in the sport of boxing. Since I was a child in my country, I remember him in the corner of many champions in the biggest fights.
It is a pleasure to talk to him each time I visit the Mayweather Boxing Club. I get very excited when he sees me and he immediately remembers the biggest star of my country, Roberto Duran, better known as the “Hands of Stone.”
On his business card, Rafael Garcia lists trainer-consultant-cutman as his occupation. But his specialty, his artistry, lies in his hands. Garcia grew up in Puebla, Mexico, and started boxing at age 15, and even then, he studied the art he later mastered.
Garcia and the welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr. hold that in common, although they employ their magic hands in different but related ways. Mayweather has delivered 45 victories against no losses, and it was Garcia who saved Mayweather’s career.
He has worked for Mayweather for well over a decade, concentrating on wrapping his hands, taking care of his cuts and offering advice culled from his vast experience.
Mayweather’s hands are brittle and he was having frequent problems with them for much of his career. He heard about Garcia’s wizardry as a hand wrapper and made a call.
“My hands were bothering me and when a fighter doesn’t have confidence in his hands,” Mayweather says, shaking his head and not needing to finish the sentence. “I finally had to find the best wrapper out there. And that is Rafael Garcia. I won’t let anyone else touch my hands.”
Those are very important hands,” Garcia said several years ago. “In those hands, there are millions of dollars. Millions and millions of dollars. I have to take care of that.”
Rafael Garcia has more than six decades of experience and some 35 world champions on his résumé. He has wrapped hands all over the United States, as well as Africa, Germany, England, China, Korea and his native Mexico. His list of champions includes Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, Wilfredo Gomez, Chad Dawson and more. There is no doubt that all of those great champions know how important Garcia has been to their success.
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