Livescore
Keyshawn Davis easily knocked out Denys Berinchyk in just four rounds this past Friday to claim the WBO lightweight crown after a controversial fight week build-up.
On the Wednesday of fight week, Davis posted on social media that he received a package containing bananas and a watermelon delivered to his hotel room. Davis initially assumed the incident was a racially motivated message from Berinchyk and his team. But a short while later, WBO super lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez — a rival of Davis’ — posted a video that showed him watching Davis’ press conference rant at Berinchyk while eating a banana. Although Lopez didn’t directly claim responsibility for sending the package, many — including Davis — assumed the post equated to an admission.
“Honestly, at first I really was set on Berinchyk’s team [sending the package] just because how the note was written out,” Davis told Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It was broken English, and also at the end of it, it said ‘businesswoman,’ and Berinchyk had called me that [earlier in the week]. But when Teo made that video, he kind of exposed himself.
“He was eating a banana and then he was already on Twitter saying racist stuff like, ‘Whichever monkey want to catch the banana first,’ stuff like that on Twitter talking about other fighters.”
This past September, when asked who he most wanted to fight between Terence Crawford and Gervonta Davis, Lopez responded by saying: “Whichever monkey wants to get the banana.” The remark became the subject of heavy scrutiny. Lopez has a history of making controversial remarks regarding race.
“My team, we [were] all talking about it,” Davis said. “It was like, ‘It was Teo. He’s just trying to knock you off your pivot at your highest moment right now. He knows he [doesn’t] have [anything] going on right now, he’s really irrelevant right now, and Keyshawn, you’re the guy right now. He just trying to knock you off your moment and actually get some attention from it,’ which he did, he got some attention from it. But at the end of the day, people don’t take racism well. It really kind of hurt him, in my opinion.”
Davis and Lopez have had notable back-and-forths in the past. When the pair shared a card in February 2024, Davis, who was fighting on the undercard, incited an incident with Lopez at ringside after watching Lopez struggle with Jamaine Ortiz.
Still, the duo currently campaign in different weight classes, which is one obstacle to a potential fight.
Davis made it clear that he doesn’t intend to chase a fight with Lopez or move up to super lightweight in the near future. He believes he has unfinished business at lightweight to take care of first.
“I’m a world champ at the end of the day,” Davis said. “World champs don’t go [chasing anything]. People come chasing after world champs, and clearly that’s what Teo is doing right now. He’s chasing after me. If he felt like I was not a threat … he would’ve never [involved himself in the situation].
“So [there’s] no point of getting out of my lane that I created for myself to go jump into his [division] at 140 [pounds]. If we [were] in the same weight, then yes, it would make more sense. But we’re not even in the same weight class right now, and I feel like I still want to settle something at 135 [pounds] that’s a bigger name than Teofimo Lopez.”
For now, Davis’ attention is firmly set on cementing himself as the top lightweight in boxing.
One of the best fights to establish that would be a WBA/WBO unification matchup with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, who next faces Lamont Roach as a massive betting favorite on March 1.
“He’s definitely going to get past Lamont Roach,” Davis said of ‘Tank.’
“It’s weird because Lamont Roach is a 130-pound world champion, ‘Tank’ fights at 135, and then he also knocked somebody out at 140. The last world champion you [‘Tank’] fought was in 2017, and that was Jose Pedraza. I just fought Jose Pedraza last year and stopped him in six rounds.
“You’re 30-something-and-0, 28 knockouts, and the last champion you fought was in 2017. I feel like, to the casuals, he’s been fooling the fans, and I feel like at this point, they’re ready for him to fight somebody worthy of [sharing the ring with him]. Lamont Roach — he’s a good opponent, but he’s not great for ‘Tank’ simply [because] he’s at 130 and he’s been at 130 his entire career. Gervonta, I feel, needs to fight a real 135-pounder, and I feel like the one that’s making the most noise right now is Keyshawn ‘The Businessman’ Davis.”
“Tank” won his first world title more than eight years ago but has yet to really test himself against the elite fighters in the sport. Even his 2023 bout against Ryan Garcia came with caveats for a 136-pound catchweight and 10-pound rehydration clause.
While “Tank” is one of boxing’s top stars, the newly-crowned WBO champion insisted that his own ascent isn’t dependent on convincing “Tank” to finally commit to a unification bout with another lightweight.
“I’m not chasing ‘Tank,’ I don’t care about ‘Tank,'” Davis said. “I’m 13-0 and a lot of the world knows me. That ain’t come from me fighting names. That came from me kicking ass and taking belts. Literally, the only thing I have to do is to keep doing what I’m doing. Me not fighting him is not going to stop me [from] continuing up to the top.”
“Eff ‘Tank,’ for real. ‘Tank’ knows I want to fight him, his coach knows I want to fight him, the boxing world knows I want to fight him. The question is, [does] Tank have the balls to fight me? Next time, one of y’all — somebody interviewing him — ask him that question: ‘Do you have the balls to fight Keyshawn? Do you want to fight Keyshawn? Why don’t you want to fight Keyshawn? Why [don’t] you want to fight Keyshawn?’ Ask him those questions. Don’t ask me because I’ll fight anybody.”
Another potential opponent in the near future for Davis is Cuba’s Andy Cruz.
Davis won silver for Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but fell short in the Olympic final to Cruz. Davis and Cruz had an infamous rivalry in the amateurs that concluded with Cruz being up 4-0.
Now that Cruz has turned pro, he’s campaigned to renew the strife with Davis.
“Honestly, I think he’s just not ready yet,” Davis said of his erstwhile rival. “He’s got a lot of grooming to do in this sport. He was a phenomenal amateur, and I said this plenty of times — I said him and Lomachenko [were] two best amateurs I’ve ever seen. I gave him his flowers for it, being a great amateur. But when it just comes to the sport of boxing and being a professional, I’m great at that.
“I’m a great fighter, period; he’s a great amateur fighter. See, he had a great amateur style. There’s different styles — he had a great amateur style and he did good at that. I had a great professional style that knew how to still fight amateur.”
Davis envisions himself campaigning at lightweight for at least a few more years and expects Cruz to eventually be one of his opponents, but only if Cruz can build himself to the point where the fight would make sense for Davis commercially.
“When the time is right, I will fight this man,” Davis said. “But I’m not thinking about what happened in the amateur days and like, ‘Oh, I got to get this back because on paper he beat me these amount of times’ — when I know he didn’t beat me — ‘but he beat me this amount of times, I got to get this back.’
“It is what it is. Look what’s going on now, let’s talk about nowadays and what’s going on. When the time is right, I’d love to fight him just to shut everybody up. That’s why I’d love to fight him. Not because he beat me [so I have] to beef with him. I just want to shut everybody up and live up to what I’ve been saying. I will knock him out when I do fight him in the professional ranks. I’m a big [135-pounder], so I’m not going to be at 135 for too much longer. I’m going to fight him before I move up to 140.”
Davis added that he hopes to fight three more times in 2025 and already has an ideal opponent in mind.
“I want to fight Isaac Cruz [next],” Davis said. “That will sell, I think that will sell. We will both make some money off that. Let’s be real, Mexicans and African-Americans, when we fight, it’s always a mega-fight. It’s respect to that team over there, it’s respect over here. I think we can make that fight happen.”
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