Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe fight results, highlights: 'King Ry' returns with dominant performance for win

Garcia bounced back from a lengthy layoff to score a clear victory on Saturday night in San Antonio

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

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
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

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:47 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Official result: Ryan Garcia def. Emmanuel Tagoe via unanimous decision (119-108, 119-108, 118-109)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:45 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 12: Tagoe largely looked to clinch repeatedly to start the round. Garcia, to his credit, was trying to find space to land heavy shots and maybe bring the fight to an end. Garcia landed a nice left hook and a right hand and Tagoe went back to clinching again. A few more power shots by Garcia down the stretch and the fight came to an end. Both fighters raised their hands but there's no drama to the incoming scorecards. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (120-107)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:41 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 11: Tagoe landed a few body punches early in the round as Garcia kept trying to walk him down. Once he'd closed the distance, Garcia went back to landing the better shots but Tagoe was fully on his bicycle again. Garcia did some decent work in the corner and landed a few more right hands but the round was largely uneventful as both fighters almost seemed resigned to heading to the scorecards. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (110-98)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:37 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 10: A huge right hand by Garcia took Tagoe's legs and he clinched to avoid going down. Garcia kept up the pressure but Tagoe kept clinching and seemed to have recovered from the initial shock of the punch. Garcia landed a few heavy left hooks and another right but Tagoe's punch resistance appeared to have returned to normal. Tagoe made it out of the round without suffering a knockdown. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (100-89)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:33 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 9: Tagoe sat in the center of the ring and unloaded with a wild flurry of punches, not really landing anything meaningful but still showing a bit of life. Tagoe began to pay for finally engaging in the center of the cage, with Garcia landing plenty of heavy punches. Garcia landed right hand after right hand in the final 80 seconds of the round, landing more or less at will until Tagoe finally started firing back. Another round, another 10-9 for Garcia. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (90-80)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:29 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 8: Garcia worked the straight right and left hook early in the round, starting to measure Tagoe and throw big power punches. Tagoe kept a high defense and ducked low, managing to avoid the bulk of Garcia's power. Garcia landed another right-hand bomb but Tagoe got in a solid counter to the aggression. Garcia landed more straight rights and a few body shots before the end of the round. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (80-71)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:25 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 7: Tagoe did land a good right hand in the first minute of the round but Garcia hit him with three in return. Garcia turned up the pressure and continued firing out combinations rather than coasting. Garcia's increased output largely shut down Tagoe's brief moments of aggression and allowed Garcia to stay firmly in control. Tagoe walked to the center of the ring in the final moments of the round but without enough time for either man to land anything of significance. Dominance on the scorecard but Garcia needs to close this fight out or it will likely be seen as a disappointment. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (70-62)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:20 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 6: Garcia landed an early flurry in the corner to start the round and Tagoe started to drift a bit more toward the center of the ring. Garcia also began dropping his shots to the body, trying to break Tagoe down when Tagoe would stop moving. Garcia landed a crisp combination of two to the body and a right hand to the head with a minute left in the round and he continued to find space to land hard right hands. This brought a bit of fight out of Tagoe as he began to fire back and land a few punches to Garcia's face. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (60-53)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:16 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 5: By Round 5, the fight had generally settled into the same rhythm of Tagoe staying wide along the ropes and forcing Garcia to try and catch up. Every time Garcia has the distance closed, it was his higher quality that allowed him to do the better work and with Tagoe doing largely nothing, the drama had mostly drained out of the fight beyond questioning if Garcia would be able to close the show against a man who wanted to make that nearly impossible by staying on his bike. Another round for Garcia. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (50-44)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:12 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 4: Garcia fought off a clinch and landed a sweeping right hand in the opening moments of the round. Garcia managed to trap Tagoe in the corner and landed a good right hand before Tagoe flailed back with a few right hands that missed the mark. Tagoe has not shown an ability to do anything offensively that could trouble Garcia and it has now turned into purely a fight where Garcia is trying to chase Tagoe down as Tagoe generally avoids the fight. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (40-35)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:08 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 3: Garcia dug to the body with a hard right hand that seemed to bother Tagoe but Tagoe continued to move and jab, even as he was getting tagged by the quick hands of Garcia. The right hand kept landing for Garcia as he continued to hunt down Tagoe along the ropes. Another clear round for Garcia but Tagoe is continuing to survive. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia (30-26)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:04 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tagoe appeared fine after getting off the canvas but his movement was slowed and Garcia was able to quickly get in hard shots. Unofficial scorecard: 10-8 Garcia (20-17)

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:03 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 2: Garcia continued struggling to pin Tagoe down but mostly avoided any incoming fire from Tagoe as the awkward fight continued to play out. Garcia seemed increasingly frustrated by Tagoe's clinching and then scored the first knockdown of the fight with a right hand. Tagoe tried to claim it was a push but it came at the end of a flurry and seemed clear that it was a clean knockdown.

[Apr 10, 2022 at 12:00 am ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe -- Round 1: Tagoe tried to come out and work along the ropes, whipping right hands as Garcia came to him. Tagoe stuck to that plan for the round, circling while Garcia would try to just land one to the body or head while trying to cut the ring off. Tagoe mostly fired off jabs to the chest and head before Garcia finally began trapping Tagoe against the ropes and landing some hard shots. That final stretch was good enough that Garcia likely got the round. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Garcia