Keyshawn Davis is looking forward to his co-feature bout against the grizzled old veteran Jose Pedraza in their ten round lightweight contest on February 8th at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This match-up suggests that Top Rank is not giving Keyshawn a vote of confidence after his last fight against Nahir Albright, which he arguably lost.
Top Rank’s gamble
So instead of being put in with a quality fighter, Top Rank is dragging the faded old veteran Jose Pedraza down from 140 to make Keyshawn look good and hope that he’ll improve. Pedraza, by the way, has a record of 1-2-1 in his last four fights.
Top Rank is putting the 24-year-old Keyshawn in with a soft touch, hoping he’ll show improvement. Right now, Keyshawn is the equivalent of an Edgar Berlanga of the lightweight division, a fighter that initially looked good but then fell apart when Top Rank stepped him up against better competition.
Interestingly, Keyshawn feels his fight with Pedraza should be the main event on ESPN, which doesn’t make sense given how old & past-it Jose is. If this fight were seven or eight years ago when Pedraza’s career was still above the water line, it would make sense, but now that it’s always sank years ago.
The reason Top Rank isn’t putting Keyshawn in the main event is because they can’t. To be a headliner, Keyshawn would need to fight an actual quality opponent, not an old guy dragged down from 140 to make him look good. If Keyshawn wants to headline, he’ll need to fight one of these guys:
- Raymond Muratalla
- Edwin De Los Santos
- Andy Cruz
- William Zepeda
- Abdullah Mason
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela
- Floyd Schofield
- Shakur Stevenson
- Frank Martin
- George Kambosos Jr.
The main obstacle keeping Top Rank from putting Keyshawn in with those guys is that most of them would beat him, so they’re not going to do that and watch his career go down the drain.
They should have known that Keyshawn had major flaws when they saw him lose to Andy Cruz in the 2020 Olympics. Those flaws are still there, as we saw in his recent fight against Nahir Albright.
Davis excited about fight
The 34-year-old Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs), who hasn’t won a fight in three years since 2021, will be coming down in weight from 135 for the first time in five years since 2019. That’s obviously a long time since Pedraza fought at lightweight and almost as long since he last won a fight.
Davis naively doesn’t realize why he’s being matched against Pedraza, believing he’s being put in with a better opponent. Why hasn’t someone clued him in to tell him that this is a demotion?
Keyshawn is surprisingly pretty amped up about this fight, talking like he’s facing the same version of Pedraza that Gervonta Davis beat in 2017. That version of Pedraza is long gone, as he’s about to turn 35 and has been struggling at 140.
Keyshawn Must Shine
“I’m going into this fight thinking like that. I’m 9-0. [34-year-old] Pedraza has 30 fights. He was a two-time world champion,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fighthype, talking about his fight next month against the grizzled veteran Jose Pedraza on February 8th.
“It’s a huge step up. This dude has fought the best of the best from 135 to 140. He was two-time world champion. He has done things in the professional sports that I haven’t done, and he’s done things in the professional sports that I’m working towards getting to,” said Keyshawn.
Keyshawn sounds like he’s either naive or trying to pull one over on the fans by saying his fight with the soon-to-be 35-year-old Pedraza is a “huge step up.”
It’s a big step down in competition from Keyshawn’s last fight against Nahir Albright, in which he was badly hurt and came close to losing. Albright swept the championship rounds and appeared to either win or deserve a draw.
He basically followed the Andy Cruz blueprint on how to beat Keyshawn by applying pressure, and he folded like a deck of cards. Keyshawn fell apart completely and looked terrible down the stretch.
For Top Rank to be putting Keyshawn in with the washed, winless veteran Jose Pedraza, that’s not a vote of confidence. What they’re saying by making this move is, ‘We don’t have confidence in your ability to fight better opposition without you losing. So, we’re going to match you with the old faded veteran, and maybe you’ll improve.’
If Keyshawn doesn’t start showing signs of improvement, it’s likely that Top Rank won’t renew his contract when it’s up because he’s basically another Richardson Hitchins or a poor man’s version of Shawn Stevenson.
Keyshawn can’t sell the way he fights, which is highly defensive, and he’s not going to beat Shakur, Vasily Lomachenko, Frank Martin, Raymond Muratalla, Andy Cruz, or Gervonta Davis. He’s too flawed.
Davis wants world title
“So, fighting a guy like him is a great opportunity. I’m blessed being in the ring with Jose Pedraza, especially with me being 9-0. I can’t wait to display why I’m in there with a Jose Pedraza when I’m only 9-0,” said Keyshawn.
“I just want a belt. After I solidify myself as a champion, it’s all about putting on great fights for me. I’m really a fighter that wants to put on great fights. For me, I want to accomplish my goal first of becoming a world champion. After that, I want to put on fantastic fights,” said Keyshawn.
So, basically, what Keyshawn is saying here is that he wants to win a world title and then spend the rest of his career just looking for payday fights. That would sound like a realistic thing for Keyshawn to do if he were a superstar, was in high demand, and wouldn’t need a world title for him to get paydays.
None of those things exist. Even if Keyshawn wins a belt to become a paper champion, he’s not going to be a star because he has a boring Shakur-like & Richardson Hitchins-like style, and those types don’t become big stars, and no one wants to fight them.
Keyshawn only wants big names
“I don’t want to be a fighter that is fighting no names. Every time I get in the ring, I want to be training for something that I really have to train for,” said Keyshawn. “And after I win my first world title, I just want to be putting on great fights for the fans.”
The popular fighters are going to ignore Keyshawn because he doesn’t have the fan base or entertaining fighting style. To change that, Keyshawn will need to take major risks by fighting the most dangerous contenders in the 135-lb division, like Muratalla, William Zepeda, and Lomachenko. If he does that, he’ll likely lose, and then Top Rank will dump him.
Another option for Keyshawn to become popular would be to move up to 140, 147, and 154 to risk his hide against the killers in those divisions. If Keyshawn volunteers to fight IBF 140-lb champion Subriel Matias, Top Rank would likely oblige. If Keyshawn wins, he’s a star. A loss, and then he was never worth the trouble in the first place.
“Once I stop Pedraza at 9-0, [I can’t be denied for a world title shot],” said Keyshawn. “People forget that when Tank fought him, he was 27-0 [in 2017 when Pedraza was 27 years old and a lot younger than he is now]. Arnold Barboza was 20-something and 0.”
Someone needs to sit Keyshawn down and spell it out to him, speaking slowly so he understands. When Tank fought Pedraza, it was many, many years ago when Jose was still young, and he fought him at 130, not at 135 and he didn’t drag him down from 140 in old age like Keyshawn is doing.
“Everyone that fought this man was 20, 30, or 20-0. I’m 9-0,” said Keyshawn. “So when I stop Pedraza, there’s no denying me. Every fight that I’ve fought, I hurt my guys. If I ain’t stop them they got hurt [except for Keyshawn’s last fight against Nahir Albright. It was Keyshawn who got hurt in that one].
“People be sleeping on my power. I go into my fights always thinking, ‘I can stop this dude,’ and Pedraza is no different. I can stop this dude,” said Keyshawn.
If Keyshawn stops Pedraza, he won’t get credit because the guy is old and hasn’t won a fight in years. Only the casual fans will be impressed, but even still, that won’t help Keyshawn. If Top Rank puts him in with a good fighter, he’ll still be just as lost as he was against Albright.
