According to multiple sources, legendary cutman Rafael Garcia passed away on Tuesday morning at the age of 88.
Garcia has more than six decades of experience and worked with 35 world champions. He worked all over the world with fighters such as Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, Wilfredo Gomez, Chad Dawson and many more.
But most modern day fans who Garcia for his work with five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. Garcia worked with Mayweather for over a decade.
Garcia wrapped Mayweather’s hands, took care of any cuts and always provided advise to Mayweather, who retired back in August at age 40 with a 50-0 record and 27 knockouts.
“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.”
Mayweather felt Garcia was the best cutman in the game and refused to let anyone else wrap him up.
“My hands were bothering me and when a fighter doesn’t have confidence in his hands,” Mayweather said several years ago. “I finally had to find the best wrapper out there. And that is Rafael Garcia. I won’t let anyone else touch my hands.”
In Mayweather’s last few fights, he did find a replacement when Garcia was looking to finally retire from the sport. They had a brief falling out in 2014 when Mayweather brought in Bob Ware to wrap his hands, but it wasn’t long before Mayweather apologized and re-secured Garcia.
“I’m going to always love Rafael Garcia,” Mayweather said. “But I just feel like it’s not about being selfish. It’s about us working together. We got to here working together, let’s continue to work together.”
Boxingscene
