As he sets to make the first defense of his WBO lightweight title against the fast and explosive southpaw Edwin De Los Santos on Saturday, unbeaten Keyshawn Davis isn’t fond of any talk surrounding this potentially being the biggest or most dangerous fight of his four-year pro career.
The brash Davis (13-0, 9 KOs), a 26-year-old from Norfolk, Virginia, who will headline a card (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET) in his home city at Scope Arena, swears he isn’t looking past De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) on his rapid journey to superstardom as much as he is looking through him.
“This is just another fight for me,” Davis told CBS Sports last week. “I just know who I am and what I can do. People were saying [Gustavo] Lemos was dangerous and I knocked him out in the second round [last November]. We will just see what Des Los Santos is going to bring.”
The 25-year-old De Los Santos has historically brought big-time power to the table since turning pro in 2018, as evidenced by a 2022 third-round upset knockout of future 140-pound titleholder Jose “El Rayo” Valenzuela.
In fact, the native of the Dominican Republic used the constant threat of the KO to discipline WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson to routinely circle away from De Los Santos in an absolutely dreadful 2023 bout which approached records for CompuBox futility and elicited lustful boos from the crowd after Stevenson’s close decision win.
Keyshawn Davis doesn’t appreciate comparisons to Gervonta Davis or Ryan Garcia: ‘I’m different’
Brian Campbell
De Los Santos was unable to rebound from the fight in any meaningful way due to the health scare of a blood clot in his leg that doctors said, had he waited 2-3 more days to get it checked out, could have been fatal. That, along with De Los Santos’ preference to enter his return bout fully healthy, extended his layoff to 19 months entering this weekend.
“In life, nothing is easy and nothing ever comes quick,” De Los Santos said at Thursday’s press conference. “The result [against Davis] will be different because I defeated death and after defeating death, there is nothing bigger than that. It’s something that will be heard and what will be heard is, ‘and the new.’ It’s going to be something that is big for me and my country in the Dominican Republic.”
In recent weeks, De Los Santos has spiced up the promotion by saying publicly that Davis will need to run, just like Stevenson, in order to survive against him and that, if he doesn’t, “he dies.” The temperature between them only got hotter at the final press conference during their staredown when De Los Santos attempted to grab the belt and received a push from a suddenly emotional Davis.
“It’s good that he is saying those things because all it does is put more eyes on the fight and it gets in my head and does something to me, as well,” Davis said. “It’s going to be worse for him. Des Los Santos is a smaller fighter. He’s southpaw, so it’s going to be different. I think it’s going to be an entertaining fight at the end of the day but I still see myself stopping Des Los Santos.”
After scoring a trio of breakout wins in 2024, including a second-round knockout of the 29-1 Lemos last November in Norfolk, Davis headlined a February card at New York’s Madison Square Garden Theater when he blew away unbeaten Denys Berinchyk to capture the WBO belt in his first world title fight, ending via fourth-round knockout.
Always a perfectionist, Davis boldly declared he doesn’t care about the Berinchyk fight because it turned out to ultimately be too easy for him. Simply put, he expected a lot more from the Ukrainian champion.
“I won’t really say disappointed because bro was scared,” Davis said. “I guess, just the type of person I am, it’s not hard for me to intimidate people before we even get into the ring. I do stuff purposely to get underneath people’s skin. I couldn’t really say [I was] disappointed, I just really expected that he was better than what I was seeing.
“The difference between Berinchyk and what I see Des Los Santos is, Berinchky was doing a lot of running around. I had to really chase him to get that knockout. I feel like Des Los Santos is not going to be doing any running around. I feel like Berinchyk has better footwork at the end of the day. I just think Des Los Santos better be smart.”
The buzz has been big for Davis as he continues to knock on the door of early pound-for-pound consideration en route to his hope of landing bigger fights, like a showdown with unbeaten star Gervonta “Tank” Davis. But nothing will come as big as Davis expects unless he first figures out a way to either avoid the power of De Los Santos or excite the crowd by following up on his bold claims about a willingness to walk through and finish the power puncher.
“That’s why people love seeing me fight and that’s why people are excited for [Saturday] because, if they have come to see ‘The Businessman’ fight, they are going to some shit,” Davis said. “They don’t even know what they are going to see, they just know they are going to see some shit. It’s the unexpected that I bring to the sport of boxing and that’s why my name is just buzzing right now. I’m so undeniable.”
Fight card
- Keyshawn Davis (c) -650 vs. Edwin De Los Santos +450, WBO lightweight title
- Abdullah Mason -2500 vs. Jeremia Nakathila +1100, lightweights
Where to watch
Date: June 7 | Location: Scope Arena — Norfolk, Virginia
Start time: 10 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN | Stream: fubo (try for free)
Prediction
Expect this to be the fight where we really find out just how good Davis really is. Even though he enters as a nearly 7-to-1 betting favorite, De Los Santos has all of the physical tools from the standpoint of quick feet, explosive speed and fight-ending power to, in theory, give him pause.
But Davis’ bold assertions and rock-solid confidence are a big reason why he’s so fun to watch. So, hearing Davis say that he loves to exchange punches and would prefer taking the fight to De Los Santos and knocking him out rather than boxing from the outside for 12 rounds is something that should be believed, even if it feels as if it brings an unnecessary level of danger with it.
Davis is good at gliding in and out of punching range with his footwork to set up powerful combinations inside. And the fact that he has such a strong amateur boxing pedigree as a 2021 Tokyo Olympic silver medalist should help him from the standpoint of using that craft to set up his power shots without getting reckless by lingering too long in front of De Los Santos to be countered.
It will take Davis walking the tight rope a bit yet that’s the pressure he appears to prefer to operate under. Just because Davis can box in a more boring manner, like his friend Stevenson, doesn’t mean that he will or that he will pay for doing so.
Davis’ ring IQ appears to be at a significantly higher level than De Los Santos, which should become a huge key in the end. Look for Davis to author the signature victory of his young career by doing exactly what he says he will, in explosive fashion.
Yes, it really does seem to appear that Davis is as good as he says he is.
Pick: Davis via TKO7
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