Gustavo Lemos says he expects lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis to “start running” when they meet next month in their 10-round headliner on ESPN+ at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
Lemos has watched Keyshawn’s past fights, noting that he runs. He didn’t mention that Keyshawn wrestles to escape pressure. We saw that in his last fight against Miguel Madueno last summer on July 6th.
Top Rank is trying to turn Keyshawn into a star, but it’s not looking good. This fight could be a watershed movement in Keyshawn’s career. If Keyshawn looks as bad as he did against Madueno and Nahir Albright, this could signal that Top Rank needs to think of an exit strategy to dump him or bury him undercards to focus on building up the diamond gem Abdullah Mason.
Keyshawn’s close friend is Shakur Stevenson, and the two of them share a similar fighting style involving a lot of movement to avoid taking punishment. The difference between them is Keyshawn uses a lot of grappling, and he fights more aggressively when facing non-punchers.
Top Rank promoter Todd Duboef says the 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) wanted the Argentinian Lemos (29-1, 19 KOs) out of all the names that he offered him.
Duboef doesn’t say who the other fighters were, but it’s safe to say that none of them were named Andy Cruz. He’s Keyshawn’s kryptonite, having beaten him four times in the amateurs, including the 2020 Olympics. He dominated Keyshawn in the finals.
“We will beat Davis to get to the highest levels to get an opportunity for a title,” said Gustavo Lemos to Fighthype about his fight against Keyshawn Davis on November 8th. “No, it doesn’t bother me. I was very close to the other division. I weighed in below the limit. So, for this fight, I’m going to be coming in strong,” said Lemos when asked if it’ll be a problem for him coming in below his natural weight class of 140.”
Lemos is coming off of a controversial 12-round unanimous decision loss to Richardson Hitchins on April 6th in Las Vegas. He out-punched the Eddie Hearn-promoted Hitchins, but the Nevada judges gave it to the New Yorker in one of the most controversial decisions in 2024.
Fans want to know why Top Rank has selected Gustavo Lemos from the 140-lb division as Keyshawn’s opponent for November 8th rather than picking out a 135-lb contender. That seems strange. If Lemos is weight-drained, he won’t be 100% playing in Keyshawn’s favor. It would have been better for Top Rank to have selected one of these contenders for Keyshawn to fight:
– Andy Cruz
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Floyd Schofield
– William Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Abdullah Mason
– Isaac Cruz
Top Rank obviously isn’t going to purposefully match Keyshawn against fighters that would beat him and ruin the chances of him getting a big-money fight against Gervonta Davis. Hence, he’s fighting the hand-picked Lemos rather than facing one of the above talents that would ruin the whole point of Top Rank signing him in the first place.
“Like in all fights, I’m going to look for a knockout. What I’m worried about is he’s not going to want to throw punches, and he’s going to start running. I prefer for him to stand in the center of the ring and not run,” said Lemos about Keyshawn. “If that happens, it could end at any time for any one of us.”
It’s not just the movement that could prevent Lemos from landing his shots. It’s the grappling and the shoving that Keyshawn does. We saw a lot of that in his recent fight against Madueno.
“I respect him; he’s a good opponent, but I’m also prepared to give a good show,” said Lemos.
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