Ryan Garcia had been on the sidelines for more than a year before returning to the ring on Saturday night to face Emmanuel Tagoe in a 139-pound catchweight fight in San Antonio. While ring rust was expected, Garcia also had to battle a fighter in Tagoe who was looking to survive more than mix it up, resulting in an odd fight that went the full 12-round distance before Garcia took the fight on wide scorecards.
From the opening bell, Tagoe circled around the ring with his back to the ropes. Garcia moved forward, trying to trap his foe in a spot where he'd be able to showcase his speed and power, but those moments rarely came in the fight.
Garcia was able to land a clean right hand in the second round that sent Tagoe spilling to the floor. That knockdown mostly came as a result of Tagoe being off-balance, however, and Tagoe went right back to circling and the fight settled into that same routine round after round.
In Round 10, Garcia landed his best punches of the fight, sending Tagoe stumbling around the ring. Tagoe was able to repeatedly clinch until he had recovered, however, and Garcia would never come close to finishing the fight again.
Despite the lack of a stoppage, Garcia won nearly every second of the fight, with Tagoe doing little offensively. According to CompuBox, Garcia landed 165 punches to 90 from Tagoe.
"I think if I'd started pressing him harder in the beginning of the fight, I could have gotten him out of there," Garcia said in his post-fight interview. "But what can I say? It was a track-down fight. I had to track him down. It was a new experience having to cut the ring off against a guy who was trying to fight to survive. I appreciate it."
At the end of 12 rounds, the official scorecards read 119-108, 119-108 and 118-109 as Garcia remained undefeated as a professional.
Attention now turns to Garcia potentially facing other top names in the division, including Gervonta "Tank" Davis. Garcia did not make any promises for what was next after his victory.
"You know, in the past, I'm always with the callouts," Garcia said. "But I've grown and matured and I'm going to let my team handle it. ... I know it's fun but it's unrealistic and I'm not going to lie to the fans. It is what it is and when we fight, we fight."
CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday, so be sure to follow along with the live results and highlights below.
Fight card, results
- Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe via unanimous decision (119-108, 119-108, 118-109)
- Shane Mosley Jr. def. Gabriel Rosado via majority decision (98-92, 97-93, 95-95)
- Marlen Esparza (c) def. Naoko Fujioka via unanimous decision (100-90, 100-90, 97-93)
- Azat Hovhannisyan def. Dagoberto Aguero via second-round TKO
Garcia vs. Tagoe scorecard, live coverage
| Garcia | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 120 |
| Tagoe | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 107 |
Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe fight results, highlights: 'King Ry' returns with dominant performance for win - CBS Sports
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