Frampton returned to the ring for the first time since his defeat to Leo Santa Cruz in January.
And he put on a thrilling performance which now sets him up for a potential title fight in 2018.
The judges called the clash 98-93, 97-93 and 96-93 in Frampton’s favour – and he was delighted to be back in action after a 10 months out.
“It was a good fight for the fans,” Frampton said.
“Everybody will probably have enjoyed that, more than me anyway.
“I got myself caught up in the fight. I was boxing lovely at the start.
“Middle round I started trying to fight him and I was doing good in patches but then he dragged me into a fight.
“In fairness I slipped and on the way down he landed a show so it was probably fair to call it a knockdown.”
Frampton rocked his opponent early on with a straight left which cranked up the atmosphere in SSE Arena.
The Irishman was picking his shots well and in the second round struck a heavy one-two combination which made Garcia retreat.
Frampton was on the front-foot again in the third, but Garcia took a big right hand well.
It took until the fourth round for the Mexican to hit his first big shot of the night – a powerful left-hook which pushed his opponent onto the ropes.
Frampton took plenty of bodyshots in the fifth but was countering well, besides a blow to the eye which opened up a wound.
The two fighters traded blow-for-blow in the sixth but the following round was cast in controversy as Frampton hit the deck and it was ruled as a knockdown, although it looked highly likely that he slipped.
Frampton was heavily involved in a dog-fight in the later rounds and spent the majority of the ninth on the ropes.
But was taking the hits well and responded with good combinations to grind out the win – but it was much, much tougher than he would have ever imagined.