KEYSHAWN Davis put in a career-best performance on Friday night, blasting away Gustavo Lemos in round two before turning his attention to future tests in the lightweight division. Not only was a quickfire detonation of the Argentine opponent impressive in its brevity, but throw in the fact that Lemos had previously given rival Richardson Hitchins all he could handle over 12 rounds before arriving in Norfolk significantly over the weight limit, and Davis could’ve been forgiven for saying he didn’t want it.
“Listen, he was not out of shape. You come in big with abs like that. That’s a significant weight difference,” the winner told Mark Kriegel straight after his victory.
Keyshawn admitted that he had no hesitation accepting the fight, regardless, only considering the no-show option if Lemos came in too much over. The savvy visitor and his team probably factored in that Davis would bend over backwards to keep the main event on, with such a big home crowd descending on the arena to watch him fight.
“Me and my team, we stuck to our guns. He followed his game plan, he didn’t come too much over, so we had to fight. And we gave y’all a spectacular night. Did we or did we not?” asked Davis, who has been linked to WBO champion Denys Berinchyk, were he to get past Lemos convincingly.
“I honestly thought Lemos was gonna put up a stronger challenge than Berinchyk, but I knocked him out in the second round, so we’ll see what Berinchyk got to put up. But a world title’s definitely gonna be next. 2025, we got big, big plans for everybody in the boxing world. Hey, Gervonta, knock, knock!”
That call out in the direction of Gervonta Davis (sitting at home, no doubt, lapping it all up, ready to tweet out a response) piqued the interest of the vocal 10,500-plus crowd inside the Scope Arena. ‘Tank’ can certainly bang hard. A key asset Lemos was supposed to bring to this fight.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel no power in him,” Keyshawn mused. “I actually sat back on the ropes one little second, and I let him throw his overhand that he loved to throw, and I felt it on my shoulder. And I looked at my brothers, I gave them that face like, mm, nah, not enough.”
All those moves led to a shock early knockdown, which saw Lemos unravel shortly after. Was Keyshawn surprised when his foe fell for the first time?
“Yes, I honestly was surprised. I didn’t know that right hand was gonna put him down, but I did hit him flush right on the chin, and honestly, that was my first time actually throwing my right hand, if you go back and watch. So it caught him by surprise, caught me by surprise.”