Keyshawn’s Fight Fits the Undercard and That’s Not a Compliment

Fans question why a better co-feature fight than Keyshawn Davis vs. Jamaine Ortiz wasn’t chosen for the ‘Ring 6’ January 31st event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Best Fight on the Card Is the Issue

Keyshawn-Ortiz is considered to be the best fight on the undercard, but it’s not the fan-friendly one that people were hoping would be packaged with the Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson card next month.

There are notable fighters on the cards, but they are the ones where fans can easily identify who the winner will be. In other words, these are not 50-50 fights. They’re more like 80-20 or 90-10 type matches.

That’s not ideal if the plan is to make boxing great again. You don’t do it by packing the entire undercard with fights where the name guys always win.

Lopez-Stevenson undercard

• Keyshawn Davis vs. Jamaine Ortiz – co-feature
• Carlos Adames vs. Austin “Ammo” Williams
• Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington vs. Carlos Castro
• Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller vs. Kingsley Ibeh
• Ziyad Almaayouf vs. Kevin Castillo

Jamaine is a pure boxer, with a fighting style that is a notch more aggressive than Shakur’s defensive approach. If fans saw Ortiz’s fights against Ortiz and Vasily Lomachenko, they’ll note that he has a similar style to Shakur, but with more speed and power. The problem is, having two Shakur-esque fighters on the same card isn’t the ideal setup.

If the paying fans see back-to-back chessmatches in the co-feature and main event, involving a lot of movement, single pot shots, and feints, they could be disappointed.

We’ve Seen This Card Before

We saw that effect when Shakur and O’Shaquie Foster shared the same card last year on July 6, 2024, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Having those two in separate fights in the headliner and chief support of the card had the effect of quieting the crowd. By the time Shakur’s fight with Artem Harutyunyan was half over, the fans were already heading toward the exits.

That’s why Turki Alalshikh should have focused on finding a high-level pressure fighter to face Keyshawn in the co-feature bout or his old nemesis, Andy Cruz. Now, that would be interesting. Cruz owns a 4-0 record against Keyshawn from the amateur days and beat him in the 2020 Olympics.

If Turki wanted to generate more interest among fans and avoid a gimme fight for the chief support, Cruz should have been recruited for the job. Fans would get to see what’s what with Keyshawn to determine whether he’s the real thing or just another run-of-the-mill marketing job.

Other options for Keyshawn include Ernesto Mercado and Gary Antuanne Russell. Both of those guys are pressure fighters with power, who would give Davis a good test. They would keep the fans awake for sure because they’re both seek-and-destroy guys.

The problems Keyshawn had with Andy Cruz and Nahir Albright would likely be compounded against Mercado and Antunne.