Gustavo Lemos says he expects lightweight candidate Keyshawn Davis “start running” when they meet next month in their 10-time headliner on ESPN+ at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
Lemos looked at Keyshawn’s past fights, noting that he runs. He didn’t say that Keyshawn struggles to escape pressure. We saw that in his last fight against Miguel Madueno last summer on July 6.
Top Rank is trying to turn Keyshawn into a star, but it’s not looking good. This fight could be a turning point in Keyshawn’s career. If Keyshawn looks as bad as he did against Madueno and Nahir Albright, this could signal that Top Rank needs to think of an exit strategy to drop him or bury him undercards to focus on building the gem of diamond Abdullah Mason.
Keyshawn’s close friend is Shakur Stevensonand the two of them share a similar fighting style that involves a lot of movement to avoid taking punishment. The difference between them is that Keyshawn uses a lot of grappling, and 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 offered.
Duboef doesn’t say who the other fighters were, but it’s safe to say that no one was named. Andy Cruz. It’s from Keyshawn kryptonitehaving fought four times in the amateurs, including the 2020 Olympics. He dominated Keyshawn in the final.
“We beat Davis to reach the highest levels to have an opportunity for a title,” said Gustavo Lemos to Fighthype about his fight against Keyshawn Davis on November 8th. “No, I’m not worried. I was very close to the other division. I weighed under the limit. So, for this fight, I have to come strong,” said Lemos when asked if it will be a problem for him that comes 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 Hitchins promoted by Eddie Hearn, but the Nevada judges gave it to the New Yorker in one of the most controversial decisions in 2024.
Fans want to know why Top Rank chose Gustavo Lemos from the 140 lb division as Keyshawn’s opponent for November 8 instead of choosing a 135 lb contender. That seems strange. If Lemos is out of weight, it won’t play 100% in Keyshawn’s favor. It would have been better for Top Rank to have chosen one of these contenders for Keyshawn to fight:
– Andy Cruz
-Edwin De Los Santos
– Floyd Schofield
– Guglielmo Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Abdullah Mason
– Isaac Cruz
Obviously, Top Rank didn’t want to pit Keyshawn against fighters who beat him and ruin his chances of getting a money fight against Gervonta Davis. So he fights with the hand-picked Lemos instead of facing one of the talents above which would ruin the whole point of Top Rank signed up in the first place.
“As in all fights, I’m going to look for a knockout. What worries me is that he didn’t want to throw punches, and he’s going to start running. I prefer for him to stay in the center of the ring and not run ,” Lemos said about Keyshawn. “If that happens, it could end at any moment for any of us.”
It’s not just movement that could prevent Lemos from landing his shots. It’s the grappling and pushing that makes Keyshawn. We saw a lot of this in his recent fight against Madueno.
“I respect him; he’s a good opponent, but I’m also willing to give a good show,” said Lemos.
