By Matt Lieberman: Ryan Garcia returns this Saturday night after a nightmarish 2021 to face Emmanuel Tagoe in a 139-lb catchweight fight live on DAZN at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
For Ryan’s first fight back after 15 months out of the ring, a catchweight at 139 was important because he hasn’t been fighting. But Ryan becomes active again, he’ll return to the the135-lb division.
Tagoe won’t be a walk in the park for the 23-year-old Ryan by any means, and if he’s not careful, he’s going to lose to the tough fighter from Ghana.
Tagoe has won his last 32 fights, and he’s going to be looking to pick up his 33rd consecutive win on Saturday. For Ryan’s sake, you got to hope that his promoters didn’t mess up by choosing someone a little too good.
This guy is more athletic than Ryan’s last opponent Luke Campbell, and he can punch as hard as him. I’m not saying Tagoe is a big puncher, but neither was the southpaw Campbell and he put Ryan down in the second round.
The unbeaten #2 WBC Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) sees his first action since his fight on January 2nd last year against Luke Campbell.
Ryan is already a superstar and has the entire 135-lb division vying for a fight against him, despite not holding down a world title.
“Now I’m at the point where I’m going to do amazing things when I get into the ring,” said Ryan Garcia. “I’m always stalking my opponent, that’s my fighting style, making sure I’m countering. Whenever an opportunity presents itself.”
As long Ryan doesn’t want into one of Tagoe’s big shots, he should be fine on Saturday night. It’s important that Ryan get Tagoe out of there as early as possible to minimize the punishment he takes from him.
Tagoe lost his pro debut against little-known Lante Addy in 2004, and he’s won his last 32 fights.
Ryan’s popularity and huge wealth are a product of his massive following on social media, with millions of fans following him.
King Ry has 8.7 million followers on Instagram alone, which makes it easy for him to attract an enormous amount of viewers each time he fights. For DAZN, it’s beneficial for them to have Ryan fight on their platform.
“I think he’s going to feel this dude out and knock this dude out,” said Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero to ESNEWS about Ryan Garcia. “Then he’s going to fight Jojo Diaz, and I have Ryan knocking out Jojo Diaz.
“Ryan is bigger, and he just fought a southpaw gold medalist. He’s a better boxer, and you have to realize that [Luke] Campbell is bigger than Jojo Diaz. So, I think Ryan will knock him out with no problem.
“He can get Gervonta after I knock him out, and I’ll do a favor for him by loosening up his jaw for him.
“They sparred each other years back,” said Rolly when asked how Ryan Garcia would do against Vasyl Lomachenko. “Loma doesn’t have that much power.
“He stops people more because of output [not because of his power]. He didn’t actually hit Rigondeaux. Rigondeaux just got frustrated. Rigondeaux is too small, he’s a 118-pounder. He needed money.
“I have a feeling that Loma is going to be scared of Ryan’s power, and he’s going to be running around like he did against Teofimo,” said Rolly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Li4J-LurQ