When it comes to the idea of Davis versus Davis, Keyshawn says he isn’t chasing a unification fight with Gervonta – though the newly minted WBO lightweight titleholder certainly says he’d like to face the man with the WBA belt.
“I don’t care about Tank,” Keyshawn Davis said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I’m 13-0. A lot of the world know me, and that ain’t come from me fighting names. That came from me kicking ass and taking names and taking belts. Literally the only thing I have to do is keep doing what I’m doing. Me not fighting him is not going to stop me continuing to go to the top.
“So I’m not chasing Tank. Fuck Tank. For real. Tank know I want to fight him. His coach know I want to fight him. The boxing world know I want to fight him. The question is: ‘Do Tank have the balls to fight me?’”
Keyshawn Davis, 25, turned pro in 2021 and then went on to compete in that year’s Olympics in Tokyo, rescheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic. He won the WBO belt earlier in February, when dethroning Denys Berinchyk via fourth-round knockout.
On March 1, Gervonta Davis, 30, will again headline a pay-per-view, defending against WBA junior-lightweight titleholder Lamont Roach Jnr. Keyshawn Davis, who is friendly with Roach, accused Gervonta Davis of facing an underwhelming selection of opposition in recent years.
“He’s definitely going to get past Lamont Roach,” Keyshawn said. “This is Tank’s best opponent to this date. But it’s weird – Lamont Roach is a 130-pounder world champion. Tank fights at 135, and then he also knocked somebody out at 140 [Mario Barrios in 2021; Barrios has since become a welterweight titleholder]. So the last world champion you fought was in 2017. That was Jose Pedraza. I just fought Pedraza last year; stopped him in six rounds. You’re 30-0, and the last champion you fought was in 2017.
“I feel like, to the casuals, he been fooling the fans, and I feel like at this point they ready for him to fight somebody worthy of him. Lamont Roach, he’s a good opponent, but he’s not great for Tank simply off the fact that he’s at 130 and he been at 130 his entire career. Gervonta, I feel like, needs to fight real 135 pounders, and I feel like the one that’s making the most noise right now is Keyshawn ‘The Businessman’ Davis.”
While Gervonta Davis has his critics, he also has ample supporters. “Tank” is consistently one of the largest box office draws in American boxing, attracting large crowds in multiple cities. The fight with Roach will bring him back to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where he stopped Rolando Romero in May 2022 in front of an announced crowd of 18,970.
Keyshawn Davis’ recent ring performances, as well as his growing fan base, are increasing his own marketability for making the big fights he’s seeking. In November he headlined in his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, where he plowed through Gustavo Lemos in front of an announced crowd of 10,568. The win pver Berinchyk headlined at The Theater at Madison Square Garden and was reportedly sold out in a room with a capacity of 5,600.
But he also recognizes that he’ll need to go to different venues for matches with the most notable foes.
“I’m a world champion now, so I can get a lot of these big-name fights in the ring with me,” Davis told At The Fights on SiriusXM. “These big fights, I feel like that can require an MSG arena this time, or that require like a Las Vegas arena. After I get that big fight under my name, then we can probably take it back home and stuff like that. If I can’t get a big name, then most likely I will take it back home.”
