ERROL SPENCE was the star to emerge from the US menโs team at the 2012 Olympic Games, Shakur Stevenson was Americaโs leading man at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 would have been the making of Keyshawn Davis. Except it didnโt happen.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic the 2020 Olympics have been rescheduled for July of this year. The Americas qualification event is still to take place, now set for May. Davis though decided enough was enough. He could wait no longer. He left Team USA.
โI had a whole year to think about it and I didnโt make my decision until 2021,โ he tells Boxing News. โI hope that it happens, especially for my friends thatโs waiting for it. But I think the Olympics was going to be watered down this year and that it wasnโt going to be good on my end to wait a whole other second year for the Olympics. It was a big risk and I just wasnโt willing to take that risk of waiting again.โ
โMe sitting and waiting, thatโs scary. I couldnโt do that for a whole other year,โ he continued. โI feel like it was going to be more of a setback than a gain.
โI did want to go to the Olympics, the Olympics is a great experience but ultimately pro was always just something I knew I could be very, very, not only successful, but just be inspirational at, have people really engage into watching me fight, period, whether itโs a knockout or just a great performance. I couldnโt wait to go to the pros and now itโs here.
โSo going into 2021 I feel like it was great timing to go. Itโs like Iโm a fresh breath of air coming into the professional game. A new fighter now. Now all the attention is on me. It was a great time to go.โ
The man from Virginia is set to make his professional debut on February 27, on Canelo Alvarezโs undercard in Miami. But he has been hampered by the snow storms and power outages that struck Houston, where he trains in Texas. His water had been cut off when he spoke to Boxing News. Later that day theyโd lose electricity. โAll week, we have been scrambling for food because everything was shut down due to no power and no running water – grocery stores, restaurants, and even gas stations were bare of food and snacks,โ he said.
His training was severely disrupted. But Keyshawn said, โOne thing this winter storm reminded me of is that regardless of your situation, someone else always has it worse. My team and I rode all over the city of Houston for two hours looking for food one day. On our journey, we saw dozens and dozens of homeless and displaced citizens out in the freezing cold, snow, and rain. It made me realise that while we are hungry and desperately searching for food, this is an everyday reality for some people. It reminded me that I had to be grateful for my situation and the fact that I had a roof over my head despite having no power, water, or food.โ
There is good reason for mounting hype around Davis. The outstanding member of the current US amateur team, he won silver medals at the Pan American Games and World championships, denied gold in both events by the brilliant Cuban Andy Cruz, and Cruz might well prove to be not only the best in the 63kgs division but one of if not the best pound-for-pound in the Olympic sport.
โHe was way more experienced. At first I was losing to him, I was taking those losses personallyโฆ I donโt like losing. But after a while I just started going back and watching tape and just understanding the sport of boxing period and I started taking those losses as learning sessions,โ Keyshawn said. โI just got better with each fight that we had. Heโs a great fighter, heโs not easy to beat. Heโs very experienced, heโs older than me, heโs got all the tools to beat me. I was just this kid going in there and competing with him and making great fights with him. I had to look at the bigger picture itself, not just the loss, but look at what I was doing and the type of fighter I was becoming and now February 27, youโre all going to see.โ
โI feel like the decisions that he was getting was because they [the judges had] seen him plenty of times, I was this brand new kid showing my talent,โ he noted. โI was really up against all odds.โ
Davis will only turn 22 on February 27. He was just 19 years old when he went on a remarkable run at the AIBA World championships in Russia. His tournament, five bouts in a few days, might have ended in a defeat to Cruz but along the way he beat Uzbekistanโs Elnur Abduraimov, an Asian champion, Sofiane Oumiha, an Olympic silver medallist and World champion, and Hovhannes Bachkov, a bullishly strong Armenian who is a European Games and European championships gold medallist. That was an astonishing sequence of performances. โAfter the first performance I had, I started feeling great, I started getting into my rhythm, I started to know okay, I can compete with these guys, not only compete with these guys but I can dominate too,โ Davis said. โEvery day I just had that in my head. I went out there and I performed great.โ
โI beat three champions,โ he reflected. โJust by that Iโm a champion. I knew I was a champion with the success I done in that tournament.โ
In terms of the level of competition, the World championships are just as hard, if not harder than the Olympic Games. โThe only difference between the World championships and the Olympics is the title that they have,โ Davis said. โThe Olympics, it was no guarantee. I couldnโt keep going off no guarantee. Because I already made a name for myself. People already know I can fight and I can be a world champion. It was just the Olympics [where] they wanted to see me win a gold medal and we donโt even know if thereโs going to be an Olympics.
โRight now Iโm just looking to move forward.โ
His ambitions are firmly focused on the professional sport. โIโm ready, Iโve been ready and I just canโt wait to show the world how great of a fighter I really am. They know that I can fight but they donโt know how great I really am and I just want to show them,โ Davis said. โTheyโre going to see how good I actually am, theyโre going to see the IQ, theyโre going to see a big difference in me coming into the pros rather than all the other amateurs coming into the pros.โ
Davis will turnover at lightweight but at his age he can eventually move up through the divisions (he sees himself ultimately going all the way up to super-welterweight). โI want to be the top dog at 135lbs of course,โ he says. โI want to be undisputed at 135, I want to let everybody know canโt nobody beat me.โ
It will be an exciting division to be a part of. โYouโve got Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia, Lomachenko, Devin Haney, youโve got so many names at this 135 and [now him,] this kid that can be on the fast-track is in this weight class,โ Keyshawn said. โBeing in this weight class Iโm very confident, Iโve sparred a lot of them guys already.โ
It was that elite sparring that prepared for the best in the amateurs. โIโve been in the ring with Terence Crawford, Iโve been in the ring with Shakur Stevenson, Teofimo, Gervonta Davis, Iโve been picking up so much IQ from these guys and then took it internationally,โ he explained. โThe best person technically Iโve been in the ring with was Shakur Stevenson but all around fighter I would say definitely Terence Crawford.โ
He learned from them. โIโm a person thatโs like a sponge,โ Davis explained. โI understand what theyโre doing to me, I understand why I probably got caught with that body shot, why he keeps throwing the jab and taming me. Because I used to be a real aggressive fighter.
โNow sparring guys like that, they made me use my head. I started realising a lot of things, like okay I canโt just keep fighting off my ability. I can win like that but letโs take it to another level, letโs start using my head.โ
They made him understand the importance of control over your opponent in a contest. Heโs convinced thatโs what helped him against the best the amateur sport had to offer. โI already knew how to have control in the ring, which a lot of these prospects donโt understand to do yet, they donโt know how to do that yet,โ he says. โI feel like I do that naturally now.โ
Davis grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, the home of Pernell Whitaker, one Keyshawnโs own heroes. โHe was a Pan American champion, he was an Olympic champion, he was a world champion, not only that but he was a great fighter, he will go down as one of the greatest,โ he said, before adding, โI want to top that, if not be better than him!โ
Norfolk, he explains, โItโs not really a great place to grow up in, Iโm not going to lie to you. A lot of distractions, the environment wasnโt good. You got people doing things theyโre not supposed to be doing at a young age, understand what Iโm saying. But that was just like the typical we had to overcome. Thatโs like a typical story. Honestly that wasnโt really hard to overcome, especially as Iโve got two other brothers, Kelvin and Keon. We always stuck together. We was raised right, I would say, and we always had this mentality that weโre not going to let nothing stop us and as we stuck together we grew together.โ
His older brother Kelvin is already a pro, his younger brother Keon is a six foot two amateur lightweight. Keyshawn promises they will be ones to watch too. โIโm here today and Iโm bringing them along with me,โ he says. โI do this for my family. Theyโre the ones that drive meโฆ Theyโre my strongest circle. Theyโve been supporting me since I didnโt have no support and I canโt be nothing without them.โ
The next step for him, the new beginning is February 27. โI left amateurs a loser. I was number two in the world,โ Keyshawn said. โThat just speaks for itself. Now Iโm coming into this pro game with a chip on my shoulder and to be number one. And to leave number one.โ