Ortiz is not a soft touch
Jamaine is not out easily. This is definitely a risky comeback fight for Keyshawn as he is not fighting another sloppy fight. Ortiz is a serious test for him, and he has advantages in physical tools. Jamaine is faster, more mobile and a superior combination puncher than Davis, and he fights in his natural weight class.
No room for a fight
It should be as dominant a performance as he showed in his last victory over Denys Berinchyk last February. What might prevent Keyshawn from looking like 24k gold is that Jamaine isn’t a plodding, slow, stagnant kind of fighter that his promoters at Top Rank have been feeding him regularly since he turned pro in 2021.
Jamaine Ortiz’s fighting style is a mix of Shakur Stevenson and Andy Cruz. This is the wrong fighter for Keyshawn to use to regain his momentum because there is a good chance he will lose. Even if he wins, he looks bad if he is gifted; it’s not going to help him regain his lost momentum.
The year that slipped away
Speaking earlier today, Keyshawn said he’s only 26, and he still has a lot of time. He turns 27 in two months, so he’s getting up there. A year of his career essentially evaporated because he failed to make weight for his fight last June against Edwin De Los Santos.
The fight was subsequently cancelled. On the bright side, maybe it was a good thing that Keyshawn was overweight because he could have lost. De los Santos is no joke. He is one of the greatest punchers in the lightweight division.
We saw Nahir Albright stagger Keyshawn during their 2023 fight. If he could hurt him, just think what De Los Santos would have done. So, it wasn’t entirely a bad thing that Davis blew his fight against him.
“A year ago, Keyshawn Davis looked like one of the brightest stars in boxing. He beat Denys Berinchyk to get to 135 pounds,” says commentator Chris Mannix on his channel on Keyshawn Davis fighting Jamaine Ortiz at Turki Alalshikh’s ‘Ring 6’ event on January 31st in New York.
It’s hard to get excited about Keyshawn’s win over the 37-year-old Berinchyk because he was fighting an old man in the ring who looked significantly smaller than him. Top Rank did a great job of sending Keyshawn into a fight against Berinchyk because he was the weakest link.
“Can he get that momentum back in 2026? He rode two of the biggest wins of his career,” Mannix said. “We know in boxing. All it takes is one fight, one big performance on one big stage to get that momentum back. I think Keyshawn is on the perfect stage to do that.”
If the illusion cracks
If Keyshawn loses or looks bad to win, Turki Alalshikh should reconsider using him for future fights because it might not be worth it. A loss for Jamaine would not be the result of inactivity. It would be a sign that Keyshawn was never as good as people thought.
The careful matchmaking that Top Rank camouflaged his flaws did for him. Keyshawn is still the same fighter who easily outboxed and knocked out Andy Cruz in the 2020 Olympics. The only thing that has changed is that he has faced marginal opposition throughout his short career.
