Keyshawn vs. Tank Is “50-50” Fight, Says Greg Hackett

Coach Greg Hackett sees a fight between 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis and Gervonta Davis as a “50-50” contest. Hackett believes 25-year-old Keyshawn’s Olympic experience (11-0, 7 KOs) will offset what Tank Davis is doing.

Hackett believes Keyshawn can beat Tank, Devin Haney and someone named “Vargas.” I think he meant William Zepeda because there is no one named Vargas at 135.

In a recent interview with Top Rank, Keyshawn mentioned that he believes he will beat these three:

– Gervonta Davis
– Vasily Lomachenko
– Devin Haney

Keyshawn didn’t mention his old nemesis, Cuba’s Andy Cruz, who has coached him into the amateur ranks four times, including in the 2020 Olympic finals. It was a fight in which Keyshawn seemed to lose his mind after the fight, jumping on the ring ropes and celebrating as if he had won while Cruz danced around the ring.

In the pro ranks, Cruz looks much more advanced than Keyshawn and appears to be on his way to a world title in 2025. Top Rank should have signed Andy Cruz out of the Olympics, not Keyshawn. It was a bizarre move on their part, especially given that he lost four times to Cruz.

Keyshawn’s recent performances against Miguel Madueno and Nahir Albright have cast a dark cloud over his career, leading many to believe he won’t pan out as a pro.

Top Rank threw in a gimme Keyshawn in what appeared to be an attempt to rebuild him mentally after his fight against Albright in which he was hurt. In Keyshawn’s last fight, Top Rank matched him against Madueno, and he again fell apart and went into panic mode after being repeatedly hit hard by the Mexican slugger.

Keyshawn went full WWE and wrestled and dirty Madueno and tried every trick in the book to save his skin from beatings. The referee should have disqualified Keyshawn by the fifth, but didn’t do the right thing. He was the A-side, so it’s not surprising that he got away with killing against Madueno.

“This is where you have to be fair with Keyshawn. He has more experience in boxing than those guys as far as the (Olympic) silver medal,” coach Greg Hackett said. Battle hypereacting to the fact that Keyshawn Davis thinks he will beat Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney and someone named ‘Vargas’, who he never once mentioned in his recent interview. In the actual interview, Keyshawn said he could beat Tank, Vasily Lomachenko and Haney.

“Obviously, when you fight in the Olympics, you fight the best in the world. Even if it’s only three rounds, you’re fighting the best in the world. You are under a lot of pressure because it is only three rounds. When you turn pro, you have to test yourself in six, eight and ten rounds; Keyshawn did it. So, I can’t say Keyshawn is tripping.

“He’s got attributes that those other guys (Lomachenko, Tank and Haney) may or may not have, but he’s showing he’s a real fighter,” Hackett continued, taking a shine to Keyshawn. “Let’s talk about it. His last fight (Miguel Madueno) was a hell of a fight to be in.”

I don’t know what Hackett is talking about because Keyshawn looks poor compared to Lomachenko, Tank Davis, Haney and William Zepeda. Maybe Hackett was half asleep watching Keyshawn because he doesn’t belong in the same galaxy as those fighters talent-wise. Keyshawn doesn’t seem to have the mental game to handle stress and panics when dealing with pressure.

“He was caught with good shots. I saw him adjust three times in that fight. Right after that, to fight Lemos at home. Come on, brother. It’s a dog. Lemos is a gangster. So for Keyshawn to take that fight, I like Keyshawn,” Hackett said of Keyshawn.

I saw one adjustment from Keyshawn for his last fight against Madueno: He turned the match into a WWE wrestling match after the Mexican fighter overworked him early in the match.

From there, Keyshawn never made any adjustments other than getting dirty with rabbit punches, low punches and shoves. It was ugly to watch. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at Top Rank headquarters listening to them talk about Keyshawn’s performance.

They need to think of an exit strategy to dump him because this was not his first poor performance. He looked equally bad against Albright.

“I like Keyshawn against Vargas (?) because Vargas is not ready,” said Hackett, who may be confusing Vargas with William Zepeda. There is no one named Vargas in the top 15 at lightweight. “Devin is 50-50 (against Keyshawn) because Dev can box. Tank is 50-50. Tank can punch and box. Keyshawn can give them all trouble, but I don’t know if he can beat Dev or Tank.”

I watched the Keyshawn vs. Madueno fight, and the only thing that stood out was Davis turning the match into a WWE wrestling clash after starting over.

He picked Madueno off the floor and got away with it. Keyshawn spent the rest of the fight holding, shoving, grappling and throwing rabbit punches. He must have been penalized several times by the referee, who let him get away with murder.

Hackett sounds like he didn’t watch the fight, but if he did, he didn’t have his eyes open. It was not an impressive performance by Keyshawn. It was one of pure panic as he was falling apart as he did in the 2020 Olympics against Cuba’s Andy Cruz.