Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya got a little subtle dig in on Keyshawn Davis on Saturday night by saying that his fighter, Oscar Duarte (29-2-1, 23 KOs), was able to knock out Miguel Madueno (31-4, 28 KOs) while Keyshawn couldn’t. It’s not that the Top Rank-promoted physically could not knock out Madueno.
De La Hoya didn’t come right out and say it, but what he’s hinting at is Duarte is a better fighter than Keyshawn. He stopped short of saying it, but that’s obviously what he meant when he pointed out that Duarte did better than Keyshawn. He is right. Duarte performed much better against Madueno than Davis.
The 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn looked like he came unglued early on against Madueno after taking some big shots against the heavy-handed Mexican warrior. The same punches that Duarte courageously took had Keyshawn stressed out to the point where he turned it into a wrestling match with holds. He was no longer fighting. It was pure WWE moves. What the fight showed is that Davis doesn’t handle pressure well. Duarte is completely okay with it, but that reflects his upbringing in Mexico, where all fighters learn to brawl early on.
Fear or Strategy?
The power was there for that fight, but the courage wasn’t. After getting a taste of the Mexican fighter’s power, Keyshawn looked scared of getting hit. So, instead of trying for a knockout, he turned the fight into a WWE-type match filled with wrestling tactics. The referee allowed Keyshawn to use the tactics without disqualifying him. Last Friday, Keyshawn was still using the same tactics.
Davis captured the WBO lightweight title last Friday night, steamrolling a champion Denys Berinchyk in four rounds at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City. Last year, on July 6th, Keyshawn went the ten-round distance, besting Madueno by a unanimous decision.
Keyshawn looked like he was afraid to fight aggressively against Madueno like he’d done against Berinchyk because he could punch, and he was getting hit hard in the early rounds when he brawled. Davis appeared to give up on the idea after the third round when he ate some big punches from Madueno.
“Keyshawn Davis couldn’t knock out Madueño. That tells you a lot about Oscar Duarte and about Keyshawn because he just won the world title last night,” said Oscar De La Hoya to DAZN following Oscar Duarte’s seventh-round knockout win over Miguel Madueno last Saturday night.
From Oscar to Oscar 👊#DuarteMadueno pic.twitter.com/tofXFAZYYU
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) February 16, 2025