Gervonta Davis believes Ryan Garcia is juicing, doesn't buy mental health "excuse"

Gervonta Davis has suggested that Ryan Garcia's mental health struggles are a facade.

At a recent open workout, Davis seemed to indicate that Garcia's mental health break last summer was an "excuse" to get out of a fight. Garcia was previously slated to face Javier Fortuna in a July 2021 bout but withdrew to focus on improving his mental health.

The 24-year-old Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) eventually fought Fortuna last July, scoring a sixth-round knockout, dropping the Dominican southpaw three times – once apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds – enroute to the emphatic finish Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Despite that, Davis still doesn't believe Garcia.

“You never heard no back-in-the-day fighter talk about mental health,” Davis said. “I think boxing people is the most, probably, the most – we need mental health to actually come in the ring and fight and things like that. I think we probably the most, the toughest out of the whole like combat sports. You know what I mean?

“I feel as though that people just was saying that to get out of stuff. Yeah, like a excuse because I feel as though like we all, to be honest, we all have like mental health [issues]. But I think [in] boxing we control it. You know how it is. You know what I mean?”

Garcia also pulled out of another bout of a January 28 tune-up fight against Mercito Gesta but it wasn't due to mental health. The Victorville, California native explained that his reasoning was because he solely wants the fight with Davis. However, the Baltimore native believes Garcia could be using performance-enhancing drugs.

“I think a couple reasons,” Davis said. “I think that it could be him juicing. And, you know, when you juice, they be having off cycles and on cycles. That’s why I was pushing for the VADA [testing for our fight]. Either that, or he ain’t trying to beat his body up to get down to ’35 or ’40, and just wanna just, you know what I mean, stick around at his normal weight. And then once it’s time to fight me, then drop down. You know what I mean? So, it’s either that or him juicing.”

Garcia has never tested positive for a PED, but Davis remains suspicious because of the way Garcia's body has developed in recent years.

“He look bigger than he actually been over the years,” Davis said. “Or maybe [he looks bigger] because he been drinking, too. I know he been drinking a lot. Either that, or he juicing for sure.”

In regard to his dig on mental health, Garcia took offense to his rival's stance on the topic.

“We all have mental health,” Garcia stated on Twitter. “First of all you can’t even conjure up a clear sentence. I’ve boxed my whole life, fought over 200 times. I’d break a long time ago if it was I was fearful to fight. You simply have never done your research and simply have low IQ.”