Keyshawn Davis said he can fight at welterweight right now because he’s big enough, but he wants to stay at 135 to capture the WBO belt from Denys Berinchyk and then unify. Davis (12-0, 8 KOs) can lose to Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) and be left high and dry.
Next month, Keyshawn will fight WBO lightweight champion Berinchyk on February 14 at the Theater at Madison Square Garcia. The event will be shown on ESPN+.
Too big for 135?
Keyshawn could move up to welterweight right now because he’s the same size as Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. He would rather continue to melt down to 135 to have a size advantage over his opponent. Davis is like Haney 2.0. with him being far too big to fight at lightweight.
It’s a mistake for Keyshawn to talk about what he’ll do after Berinchyk, assuming he’ll win and unification matches will follow. Davis has created a fantasy world inside his head. His feet are not planted on the ground.
He doesn’t see reality. The reality is that Keyshawn could lose that match because he’s flawed and even if he wins, Top Rank won’t be able to set up the unification matches he wants. He doesn’t want to fight his buddy, Shakur, and he can forget that Gervonta Davis and Vasily Lomachenkof are fighting him. He is nobody to them.
If Keyshawn was brave, he could fight his four-time conqueror, Andy Cruzif he gets his hands on the WBO belt. Cruz already said last week that he is pulling for him to beat Berinchyk so he can take the belt from him afterwards.
Davis wants nothing to do with Cruz because he wants to train him for a fifth time and make Top Rank regret buying him after his loss to the Cuban in the 2020 Olympics.
Can Keyshawn cut it at 147?
“I don’t need to stay at 135. I’m bigger than Shakur. Shakur is probably looking at 135. My peak is at 147. This is just the beginning. 135 is just the beginning,” Keyshawn Davis told MillCity Boxing in what sounded like the beginning of a breakup with his friend, Shakur Stevenson,
“There are battles out there. I don’t need to fight Shakur, but I would love to unite after I beat Berinchyk with one of the champions. We’ll see. I want to fight. I am the young shooter. I will fight everyone [except Andy Cruz]. After I get my belt, of course I want to unify with one of the champions, other than Stevenson.
“I’m not going to be at 135 too much longer. As long as I’m going to be here,” Keyshawn said when asked how much longer he wants to stay at lightweight. “I’m 144 right now. I’m not really a 140-pounder, but I have the size and strength to do it.
Of course, Keyshawn doesn’t have to stay at 135, but we know he will because life would be brutal and hard if he moved up to the point where he had to fight in the welterweight division against the killers up there. Without Keyshawn’s size advantage, he is nowhere. Fighters like Karen Chukhadzhian would pick him apart and weed him out before he could fight Boots.
“He’s going to 147 for one reason because I’m on his a**,” Davis said of WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez moving up to 147 because he’s allegedly running away from him.
