Keysawn Davis believes that the performance he will put on against Gustavo Lemos on Friday, November 8th will put him on the brink of fame. Undefeated 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) takes on Lemos (29-1, 19 KOs) in a ten-round lightweight header on ESPN+ at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
According to Top Rank President Todd Duboef, Keyshawn handpicked Lemos as his opponent. He doesn’t say why Keyshawn didn’t choose Cuban Andy Cruz as his opponent, because he is much higher at lightweight than Lemos, and he has a perfect 4-0 record against him in the amateurs. Cruz and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, called out Keyshawn with no luck.
Top Rank promoted Keyshawn expects 10,000 fans to show up to watch him fight Lemos, and he has some of his brothers on the undercard. Norfolk has a population of approximately 232,000+ people. So it’s easier to be a big ticket seller in that small city with not much going on compared to a bigger city like New York with 8.3 million people.
Keyshawn did not fare well in his last fight against Miguel Madueno, going the distance of ten rounds on July 6 at the Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan card won. He says he stole the show, but he didn’t, and his performance was on par with Shakur’s.
Keyshawn fought like a WWE wrestler, using tactics that bore no resemblance to boxing and doing everything he could to prevent the hard-hitting Mexican fighter from taking punishment.
You can tell that Madueno’s pressure on Keyshawn has caused him to unravel mentally. Therefore, the wrestling tactic was a last resort. The fight was hard to watch because Keyshawn seemed to want no part of the actual fight.
It was surprising that the referee didn’t disqualify or penalize him several times for his tactics, but he found a break with the referee’s laissez-faire attitude when applying the rules. Keyshawn would have been disqualified by the sixth if I was the ref. He was just as awful that night, but he was no better in his fight against Nahir Albright last October.
“Obviously I’d pick Lomachenko first, but if I can become a world champion, I’m going to become a world champion. I’m not going to wait on anybody’s time,” Keysahwn Davis told the Sean Zittel. channell when asked if he wanted to challenge IBF lightweight champion Vasily Lomachenko.
Lomachenko is not going to waste time fighting Keyshawn as he is not a big name and has not looked impressive in two of his last three fights. Keyshawn still has a lot to prove, and it’s doubtful he’ll pan out.
“I sell. So, I don’t need a name to help sell me,” Keyshawn said. “So whichever world champion wants to entertain me first, that’s who I go to. Berinchyk and I will be a big fight. I’m obviously going to be the winner of that fight, but I think it will be good for him in terms of marketing and promotion.”
WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk will likely be the favorite against Keyshawn, and he can beat him. If Keyshawn loses to Berinchyk, it’s predictable that Top Rank will dump him. It would be Keyshawn’s third poor performance in his last four fights. We don’t know yet how Keyshawn will fare against Lemos. He might also look bad against him.
“Not only a world champion, but I feel like after my fight against Lemos I’m going to be on the verge of becoming a superstar,” Keyshawn said. “I’m going to have 10,000 people watching me in that arena (Scope), not including ESPN viewers. They’re going to see another taste of, ‘Damn, Keyshawn is really like that. Just like his last fight (Miguel Madueno).’
“I’m going to be on the verge of being a star. Was it the fight of the night?” asked Keyshawn about his fight against Madueno.
The fight of the night on the July 6th card was Abdullah Mason’s third round knockout victory over Luis Lebron.
“If you get into the Lemos fight, you’re going to be entertained,” Keyshawn said.
Hopefully Keyshawn does entertain because he’s the one who chose Lemos. So it must mean that he sees vulnerability in him that he can exploit because he can have someone else.
2020 Olympic Cuban gold medalist Andy Cruz would have jumped at the chance to fight Keyshawn.
