Keyshawn Davis says he’s going to stay lightweight until Gervonta Davis agrees to fight. Virginia native Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) thinks Tank Davis is hoping he moves up to 140 so he can say he’s too big and doesn’t need to fight.
(Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
Keyshawn says he won’t do that, and that he will wait as long as necessary to get the match 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 without a doubt should be competing 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 can drain to fight at 135, but it is not something he can do indefinitely. When you have fighters in their mid-20s, they are on borrowed time.
Keyshawn when he negotiates a fight with Tank Davis, he will not be able to use his weight “shenanigans” that he did with other fighters. It’s a killer deal here because Tank is the face of boxing and the A-side.
Top Rank will have to muse Keyshawn and let them negotiate because he’s going to ruin any potential big fight he can get if he talks at all about what he won’t be willing to put up with. If Keyshawn wants these big fights against superstars like Tank, he’s going to have to buckle down and do whatever is asked of him.
Tank would always have the upper hand in negotiations with Keyshawn, no matter how long he chooses to stay at 135 to try and wait.
“The potential money that can be made. I have to fight (Tank) with the same energy that he comes. He can’t do all the jokes that he does with other people, he can’t do with me,” said Keyshawn Davis to Cigar Talk about Gervonta Davis could not use weight stipulations in a contract as he did with other fighters.
Tank Davis can make more money fighting other fighters at 135 and 140 than he can against Keyshawn, who is unknown to casual boxing fans. His fans in Norfolk aren’t going to buy him like someone like Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney.
“Yeah, I’m ready for that. He can’t f*** with me. He and his coach know that, bro,” Keyshawn said about Tank Davis. “The bald guy (Coach Kenny Ellis). He said, ‘Don’t call Tank out 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. That’s why he succeeded against the limited opposition that his promoters faced with him. If Keyshawn were to move up to 147 or 154 and enter the general population of killers in these divisions, it wouldn’t be long before one of them caught up to him. Keyshawn would be in trouble against Jaron Ennis at 147 and Bakhram Murtazaliev at 154.
“No, I’m at 135, and I’m going to be there until you’re ready to fight me,” Keyshawn said about Gervont Davis.
Keyshawn may try to stay at 135, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always have a fight against Tank. Look at Lomachenko. He’s been at lightweight since 2018, and it’s only now that he’s 36 years old that Tank has shown interest in fighting. Keyshawn can not stay at 135 for the next six years as Lomachenko has without growing out of the division, which he is about to do now.
“I don’t think he wants to fight one young and rising star,” Keyshawn said about Vasily Lomachenko. “He wants to fight a solidified star. A person who has already had his way in boxing. They are always up and coming. So, I don’t think in his last fight he wants to fight someone young and new.
It’s too early for Keyshawn to be seen as a “rising star” because he looked poor in two of his last three fights against Miguel Madueno and Nahir Albright. That’s why Top Rank turned around and pitted Keyshawn against 35-year-old Jose Pedraza and then offered him 38-year-old Nicholas Walters. Keyshawn is too obtuse 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 down that road,” Keyshawn said.
Lomachenko will never waste time with a no-name like Keyshawn, who brings nothing to the table except 20+ lbs, has never won a world title, and came in second place in the 2020 Olympics. He lost to Andy Cruz. In contrast, Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a former three-division world champion. Keyshawn has never accomplished these things, and is already close to turning 26 with no world titles in sight.
