Keyshawn Davis says he’s going to stay at lightweight until Gervonta Davis agrees to fight him. Virginia native Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) thinks Tank Davis is hoping he’ll move up to 140 so he can say he’s too big and not have to fight him.
(Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
Keyshawn says he won’t, and he’ll stay as long as it takes to get the matchup against Tank. One issue that could prevent Keyshawn from staying at 135 is his size. He is a weight bully for the lightweight division and should probably compete at welterweight or junior middleweight.
The 25-year-old Keyshawn is massive for the lightweight division and looks like a 147-pounder after rehydration. Because of his youth, he may water down to fight at 135, but that’s not something he can do indefinitely. If you have fighters in their mid-20s, they are on borrowed time.
Keyshawn, when he does negotiate a fight with Tank Davis, he won’t be able to use his weight “shenanigans” that he has done with other fighters. That’s a deal killer right there because Tank is the face of boxing and the A-side.
Top Rank will have to muzzled Keyshawn and let them negotiate because he’s going to ruin every potential big fight he can get if he talks in absolutes about what he won’t be willing to put up with. If Keyshawn wants these big fights against superstars like Tank, he will have to struggle and do whatever is asked of him.
Tank will always have the upper hand in negotiations with Keyshawn, no matter how long he chooses to stay at 135 to try and wait him out.
“The potential money that can be made. I’m going to fight (Tank) with the same energy he comes with. He can’t do all those shenanigans that he does with other people, he can’t do with me,” Keyshawn Davis said. Cigar talk about Gervonta Davis not being able to use weight stipulations in a contract like he has with other fighters.
Tank Davis can make more money fighting other fighters at 135 and 140 than he can against Keyshawn, who is not known to casual boxing fans. His fans in Norfolk aren’t going to bring in the buys in like someone like Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney would.
“Yes, I’m ready for it. He can’t fuck with me. He and his coach know that, bro,” Keyshawn said of Tank Davis. “The bald guy (coach Kenny Ellis). He said: ‘Just don’t call out Tank for the rest of the year. They are worried. They want me to move to 140 to get out of 135. “Oh, I’m too big. I don’t have to fight him anymore.’”
Keyshawn is already big for the lightweight division. This is why he succeeds against the limited opposition his promoters match him against. If Keyshawn were to move up to 147 or 154 and enter the general population of killers in those divisions, he wouldn’t last long before one of them got to him. Keyshawn would be in trouble against Jaron Ennis at 147 and Bakhram Murtazaliev at 154.
“No, I’m staying at 135, and I’m going to be there until you’re ready to fight me,” Keyshawn said of Gervont Davis.
Keyshawn can try to stay at 135, but that doesn’t mean he’ll ever get a fight against Tank. Look at Lomachenko. He’s been at lightweight since 2018, and it’s only now that he’s 36 that Tank has shown interest in fighting him. Keyshawn can’t stay at 135 for the next six years like Lomachenko has without growing out of the division, which he’s about to do now.
“I don’t think he wants to a young and rising star,” Keyshawn said about Vasily Lomachenko. “He wants to fight a solidified star. A person who has already had their way in boxing. I’m still up and coming. So, I don’t think in his last fight that he wants to fight against a young and up-and-coming person.”
It is far too early for Keyshawn to be considered a “rising star” as he has looked poor in two of his last three fights against Miguel Madueno and Nahir Albright. So Top Rank turned around and matched Keyshawn against 35-year-old Jose Pedraza and then presented him with 38-year-old Nicholas Walters. Keyshawn is too dumb to see things as they really are.
“He wants to fight a superstar. Yes, we (Top Rank) talked about it, but I don’t think he (Lomachenko) wants to go this route,” Keyshawn said.
Lomachenko would never waste time with a no-name like Keyshawn, who brings nothing but 20+ lbs to the table, never won a world title, and came in second in the 2020 Olympics. He lost to Andy Cruz. By contrast, Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a former three-division world champion. Keyshawn will never get those things right, and he’s already about to turn 26 with no world titles in sight.
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