Keyshawn Davis says he’ll be surprised if WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk can handle his power in their 12-round headliner on ESPN this Saturday, February 14th, when they meet at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
The Size Factor
Davis, 25, could be asking for trouble if he goes out trying to swing for the fences against the more technically gifted 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Berinchyk. The one advantage that Keyshawn will have in this fight is size. He will be gigantic inside the ring on Saturday night, and that size could help him, but not if he’s fighting recklessly, loading up on everything he throws.
Top Rank has put together some interesting fights on this career. Some of them might be more interesting than the main event if they last:
Xander Zayas vs. Slawa Spomer
Jared Anderson vs. Marios Kollias
Abdullah Mason vs. Manuel Jaimes
“I feel like the only thing Berinchyk can do to surprise me is to take some of my punches. I don’t think she can take my punches, period,” said Keyshawn Davis to Top Rank Boxing about his fight against WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk this Saturday. “I feel like once I sit down and start punching him, he’s going to have happy feet and backing up.
“In this sport, you’ve got to have that confidence in you. You’ve got to know that you can’t be beat. I don’t want to sound too cocky like I’m invincible, but come February 14th, I’m going to be invincible that day. Every day I spar, I kept getting one comment: ‘Goddman, bro. You’re strong as hell. You’re strong.’ Every day I spar, people be telling me that.
“It’s weird because I’ve been feeling it before in camp. I put in Twitter, I said, ‘February 14th, I’m going to be unbelievably strong.’ So coming into camp, everybody be telling me, ‘Damn, bro, you’re strong. I’m like, ‘I felt it, I knew it,’” said Keyshawn.
Is Keyshawn a KO Artist?
Davis is acting like he thinks he’s a knockout artist now that he stopped Gustavo Lemos and 35-year-old Jose Pedraza. Those fights put some ideas into the Norfolk, Virginia native, making him think he’s a KO artist. He’s not. Keyshawn is just a guy who should be fighting at 147 but chooses to melt down to 135 to have a size advantage over his smaller opposition. In other words, he’s a classic example of a weight bully.
“It’s going to be tricky in the first couple of rounds until Keyshawn catches his rhythm,” said trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre. “It’s just like music. You go in there and get into your rhythm and box off your rhythm. It’s like beating a drum. You get into a rhythm, you can box all night long. It’s checkmate after that.”
Keyshawn is going to have to be a lot better in this fight than he was in several of his bouts since turning pro in 2021 because he’s not fighting a weight-drained, tiny 5’4″ Gustavo Lemos on Saturday night. Davis cherry-picked that guy from the 140-lb division, dragging him down to 135 after his loss to Richardson Hitchin.
Cruz Avoided?
That was strategic on Keyshawn’s part. He could have fought his four-time conqueror Andy Cruz of Cuba, but he wanted a tiny guy coming off a loss. What does that tell you? Keyshawn is another hype job in the Edgar Berlanga mold. I’m surprised ESPN isn’t insisting that he fight better opposition because they should have by now.
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