Gustavo Lemos on Keyshawn Davis: “He’s going to start running”

Gustavo Lemos says he expects lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis to “start running” when they meet next month in their 10-round headliner on ESPN+ at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

Lemos watched Keyshawn’s previous fights and noticed him running. He didn’t mention that Keyshawn wrestles to escape pressure. We saw this in his last fight against Miguel Madueno last summer on July 6th.

Top Rank is trying to turn Keyshawn into a star, but it’s not looking good. This fight could be a watershed move in Keyshawn’s career. If Keyshawn looks as bad as he did against Madueno and Nahir Albright, it could be an indication that Top Rank needs to think of an exit strategy to dump him or bury him undercards to focus on building up diamond jewel Abdullah Mason.

Keyshawn’s good friend is Shakur Stevensonand the two of them share a similar fighting style that involves a lot of movement to avoid punishment. The difference between them is that Keyshawn wrestles a lot, and he fights more aggressively when facing non-punchers.

Top Rank promoter Todd Duboef says 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) wanted Argentina’s Lemos (29-1, 19 KOs) out of all the names he presented him with.

Duboef doesn’t say who the other fighters were, but it’s safe to say that none of them were named Andy Cruz. He is Keyshawn’s kryptoniteafter beating him four times in the amateurs, including the 2020 Olympics. He dominated Keyshawn in the finals.

“We will beat Davis to get to the highest levels to get an opportunity for a title,” Gustavo Lemos said. Battle hype about his fight against Keyshawn Davis on November 8th. “No, it doesn’t bother me. I was very close to the other division. I weighed in under the limit. So, for this fight, I’m going to come in strong,” Lemos said when asked if it would be a problem for him to come in under his natural weight class of 140.”

Lemos is coming off a controversial 12-round unanimous decision loss to Richardson Hitchins on April 6 in Las Vegas. He beat the Eddie Hearn-promoted Hitchins to the punch, but the Nevada judges gave it to the New Yorker in one of the most controversial decisions of 2024.

Fans want to know why Top Rank chose Gustavo Lemos from the 140-lb division as Keyshawn’s opponent for November 8 rather than selecting a 135-lb contender. It seems strange. If Lemos lost weight, he wouldn’t play 100% in Keyshawn’s favor. It would have been better for Top Rank to choose one of these contenders for Keyshawn to fight:

– Andy Cruz
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Floyd Schofield
– William Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Abdullah Mason
– Isaac Cruz

Of course, Top Rank isn’t going to purposely beat Keyshawn against fighters who would beat him and ruin the chances of him getting a big money fight against Gervonta Davis. As a result, he fights the select Lemos rather than face one of the aforementioned talents that would ruin the whole point of Top Rank signing him in the first place.

“As in all fights, I’m going to look for a knockout. What I’m worried about is he’s not going to want to throw punches, and he’s going to start running. I prefer him to stand in the middle of the ring and not run,” Lemos said of Keyshawn. “If that happens, it could end at any time for any one of us.”

It’s not just movement that can stop Lemos from landing his shots. It’s the grappling and the pushing that Keyshawn does. We saw a lot of that in his recent fight against Madueno.

“I respect him; he’s a good opponent, but I’m also prepared to give a good performance,” said Lemos.