Keyshawn Davis is looking forward to his co-feature bout against the grizzled old veteran Jose Pedraza in their ten round lightweight contest on February 8th at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This match-up suggests that Top Rank is not giving Keyshawn a vote of confidence after his last fight against Nahir Albright, which he arguably lost.
So instead of being put in with a quality fighter, Top Rank is dragging the faded old veteran Jose Pedraza down from 140 to make Keyshawn look good and hope that he’ll improve. Pedraza, by the way, has a record of 1-2-1 in his last four fights.
Top Rank is putting the 24-year-old Keyshawn in with a soft touch, hoping he’ll show improvement. Right now, Keyshawn is the equivalent of an Edgar Berlanga of the lightweight division, a fighter that initially looked good, but then fell apart when Top Rank stepped him up against better competition.
Interestingly, Keyshawn feels his fight with Pedraza should be the main event on ESPN, which doesn’t make sense given how old & past-it Jose is. If this fight were seven or eight years ago when Pedraza’s career was still above the water line, it would make sense, but now that it’s always sank years ago.
Pedraza winless since 2021
The 34-year-old Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs), who hasn’t won a fight in three years since 2021, will be coming down in weight from 135 for the first time in five years since 2019. That’s obviously a long time since Pedraza fought at lightweight and almost as long since he last won a fight.
Keyshawn is surprisingly pretty amped up about this fight, talking like he’s facing the same version of Pedraza that Gervonta Davis beat in 2017. That version of Pedraza is long gone, as he’s about to turn 35, and has been struggling at 140.
Keyshawn calling this a “Huge step up”
“I’m going into this fight thinking like that. I’m 9-0. [34-year-old] Pedraza has 30 fights. He was a two-time world champion,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fighthype, talking about his fight next month against the grizzled veteran Jose Pedraza on February 8th.
“It’s a huge step up. This dude has fought the best of the best from 135 to 140. He was two-time world champion. He has done things in the professional sports that I haven’t done, and he’s done things in the professional sports that I’m working towards getting to,” said Keyshawn.
Keyshawn sounds like he’s either naive or trying to pull one over on the fans by saying his fight with the soon-to-be 35-year-old Pedraza is a “huge step up.”
It’s a big step down in competition from Keyshawn’s last fight against Nahir Albright, in which he was badly hurt and came close to losing. Albright swept the championship rounds and appeared to either win or deserve a draw.
He basically followed the Andy Cruz blueprint on how to beat Keyshawn by applying pressure, and he folded like a deck of cards. Keyshawn fell apart completely and looked terrible down the stretch.
For Top Rank to be putting Keyshawn in with the washed, winless veteran Jose Pedraza, that’s not a vote of confidence. What they’re saying by making this move is, ‘We don’t have confidence in your ability to fight better opposition without you losing. So, we’re going to match you with the old faded veteran, and maybe you’ll improve.’
If Keyshawn doesn’t start showing signs of improvement, it’s likely that Top Rank won’t renew his contract when it’s up because he’s basically another Richardson Hitchins or a poor man’s version of Shawn Stevenson.
Keyshawn can’t sell the way he fights, which is highly defensive, and he’s not going to beat Shakur, Vasily Lomachenko, Frank Martin, Raymond Muratalla, Andy Cruz or Gervonta Davis. He’s too flawed.
“So, fighting a guy like him is a great opportunity. I’m blessed being in the ring with Jose Pedraza, especially with me being 9-0. I can’t wait to display why I’m in there with a Jose Pedraza when I’m only 9-0.
“I just want a belt. After I solidify myself as a champion, it’s all about putting on great fights for me. I’m really a fighter that wants to put on great fights. For me, I want to accomplish my goal first of becoming a world champion. After that, I want to put on fantastic fights.
“I don’t want to be a fighter that is fighting no names. Every time I get in the ring, I want to be training for something that I really have to train for. And after I win my first world title, I just want to be putting on great fights for the fans.
“Once I stop Pedraza at 9-0, [I can’t be denied for a world title shot]. People forget that when Tank fought him, he was 27-0 [in 2017 when Pedraza was 27 years old and a lot younger than he is now]. Arnold Barboza was 20-something and 0.
“Everyone that fought this man was 20, 30, or 20-0. I’m 9-0. So when I stop Pedraza, there’s no denying me. Every fight that I’ve fought, I hurt my guys. If I ain’t stop them they got hurt [except for Keyshawn’s last fight against Nahir Albright. It was Keyshawn who got hurt in that one].
“People be sleeping on my power. I go into my fights always thinking, ‘I can stop this dude,’ and Pedraza is no different. I can stop this dude,” said Keyshawn.
