Ryan Garcia certainly has star quality, but can he get his boxing career back when he returns to the ring this weekend against Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe? Luke G. Williams previews a fascinating contest that may provide more questions than answers.
2021 is considered the year of Ryan Garcia. He certainly started it off with a bang, rising off the frame to beat two-time world champion challenger Luke Campbell New Year’s Day two with a snap of a body shot in a fight. recreational competition for the WBC interim lightweight title.
So far mocked ‘KingRy’ can – it appears – fight after all and not just a social media thing (I asked if that’s correct jargon, like a bad dad). tiger when collecting his daughter from a school disco?) Yes, this kid, it appears, can really fight!
And so, with the foolish innocence nourished by the start of a new year, boxing breathes a sigh of relief that it may have discovered a real new star, and much of the chatter just makes sense. guarantees that Garcia will advance to potential competitions with the likes of Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney – this is the new ‘Four Emperor’ after all. and a new era of glory has come upon us!
Well, boxing is boxing, the 2021 play has other ideas. The New Year’s hangover soon wore off and a painful hangover ensued. Lopez was overthrown by George Kambosos Jr and then entered a disturbing spiral of self-delusion and paranoia; Tank Davis did Davis’ things by loud and trash talk but only fought a team of carefully selected and uncompromising PBC in-house ‘talent’; and Haney flattered to deceive (although he has now – to his credit – bypassed advertising lines and networks by signing a contract against the new lightweight king Kambosos in Australia in Last year).
What about Garcia? Yes, he did everything but also nothing. He scheduled fights, he pulled out of fights, first because of anxiety/mental health issues and then through injury and he broke up with coach Eddy Reynoso. But then suddenly, the year was over and Garcia stopped fighting.
So boxing is boxing, we forgot about him. Or at least we’ve stopped attaching any or more hope to him. And again, he’s back to being seen as a social media phenom (still don’t know if that’s the right term) – more of an asshole than a fighter.
But now he’s going to fight again, for the first time in 15 months, and he has a lot to say about it, most of which is proving the haters wrong, the next chapters, blah blah blah…
Here’s what he told ESPN this week:
“This new chapter is clearly mine, right? Now it’s time for me to go into myself. Obviously a lot has been said about me, when I rested and the things I had to go through.
“But I ride it. I ride it like a wave. Because when I win the fight, you’ll see everyone coming back, trying to be cool. Everyone will talk. There will be many opinions. But I control my story by how I present it. I’m happy to be whatever people want to say about me because I know who I am. So I’m ready”.
OK, that’s what Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) had to say. How about this preview? Well, first of all, his opponent in this 139 lbs heavyweight competition in Alamodrome, San Antonio is probably not much of a cop.
Emmanuel Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) may be on a 32-fight winning streak, but it all saved one of those wins coming in his native Ghana against a group of ferocious, only enemies. sometimes breaking into the outer ring of what might be considered true caste generously.
The best name on Tagoe’s record is probably Namibian Moses Paulus, who briefly held the world championship in 2009-10 (although it was awarded by the WBA, so that’s not to say. much), and trailed Ricky Burns and Ray Beltran in losing the bid for the WBO title.
In his only US appearance to date, Tagoe looked short-tempered and awkward, but more so, when he defeated Mason Menard by majority decision (Menard had previously been beaten by Teofimo Lopez. match and was stopped by Devin Haney in game nine).
Sure, the 33-year-old from the amazing city of Accra is ranked 9th in the WBC rankings, but he is not considered by Boxing Social as one of the top 10 with a weight of 135lbs.
However, Tagoe is promising an upset. Of course he is. “No one expects me to win this war but mark my words; there is a card annoyance in San Antonio this weekend,” he announced this week. “I respect Garcia’s ability but he accepted to challenge one of the best fighters in the 135lbs division and, let me tell you, it’s a completely different ballgame at this level. Saturday night will mark the second leg of my career and with the backing of Probellum and DiBella Entertainment, I am determined to show the world all about Ghanaian boxers.”
There’s certainly a flaw about Garcia that will encourage Tagoe, who will also be aided by the cunning of coach Javiel Centeno, the mastermind behind the overthrow of Teofimo Lopez by George Kambosos Jr. If the Ghanaian can let the Californians down, keeping him off balance and at a distance, maybe he can topple him?
Probably.
There’s a good chance Garcia will win, though, because that’s what this fight was designed for him to do and that’s why he’s like a 1-20 vs 10 favorite. -1 or so you can get on Tagoe.
My hunch is that Garcia will probably secure a spectacular tackle mid to late round after looking sure to hurt, maybe even a quick knockdown or something like that.
But here’s the thing – unless he loses, the fight probably won’t tell us much about Garcia that we don’t already know – namely that he’s got quick hands, plenty of talent, a matching heart. and he has the potential to be a star and one day, maybe soon, or maybe not in a few years, we might finally discover what he’s made of in pugilistic terms .
For now, though, we’ll have to wait. And wondered.
