I don't think that there is a sign contract yet, as far as I know, it took weeks for Ryan to give the name of his supposedly tune up fights. And then it just surfaced that he will be facing an old and past prime Gesta but still can pull the trigger.
So we can't blame Ryan for backing up if there is no written contract, he can do that by all means.
I did try to look at Gesta's twitter page but so far no update about this fight being cancelled.
https://twitter.com/therealmgestaAnd it seems that he is hard on training.
There is a reported article[1] about Garcia and Gesta signing a contract. It was reported by ESPN's Mike Copinger.
No longer interested with sparring type fight but wanted to go directly against Davis, something that his camps need to settle against Gesta's camps. If he really don't want to fight now then there's nothing that we can do, we will not see these fight to happen as Garcia choose to prepare himself against Davis and will no longer give Gesta a chance to meet him inside the ring,.
Yeah, Garcia wanted to focus on Davis and Garcia doesn't want to have an extra fight before his dream fight against Davis. Garcia explains that it is not all about money or an easy fight, he just wanted to fight Davis straight and don't want to have any worries about another fight with Gesta[2], he just wanted to focus on Davis. Besides, he said that he is used to long lay-offs before the fight and the fight with Mercito Gesta would change the routine which is new to him.
“I'm just used to [long layoffs] at this point,” said Garcia. “A lot of my fights have come off layoffs. [Luke] Campbell [in January 2021], that came after about a year off. As long as I'm staying in the gym right now, I'm good. I already feel in amazing shape. So I pretty much am now just focused on preparing my body and my mind as best as I can for that fight with Tank.
“It's not about the money for me. It's not about having easy fights. This is the best thing for me. For my mindset, going into a huge fight, I don't want to be worried about Mercito Gesta real quick. I know they say it's easy, whatever, but I want to really focus on the fight that matters to me and that's Tank.”
[1]
https://www.badlefthook.com/2022/12/11/23503764/ryan-garcia-vs-mercito-gesta-reportedly-signed-january-28-phoenix-dazn-boxing-news-2022[2]
https://www.boxingscene.com/ryan-garcia-explains-passing-on-gesta-its-not-about-money-easy-fights-im-focused-on-tank--171260