NEW YORK – As Keyshawn Davis walked into The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, an observer could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking they were actually at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.
Local fans filling two 50-passenger buses, in addition to numerous other Norfolk residents – including Mayor Kenneth Alexander – made the trip up I-95 to witness their hometown star become a world titleholder for the first time.
On paper, the matchup against incumbent titlist Denys Berinchyk appeared to be a significant step up in competition for Davis, 13-0 (9 KOs), though it didn’t appear that way toward the end of the fourth when Berinchyk, bloodied and battered, took the full count from a body punch.
“Y’all heard it in the crowd – they were chanting ‘Norfolk.’” said the new WBO lightweight belt holder Davis. “When they started chanting ‘Norfolk,’ I was like, ‘I’m about to knock this dude out.’ I wanted a head shot, I threw a hook – boom – he didn’t go down, so I went to the body.”
Flanked by his brothers, Keon and Kelvin – a collective they call “DB3” – Davis addressed the media afterwards. With his belt on his shoulder, reflecting on his journey from battling mental health issues through his teenage years, to sleeping on a cardboard “anti-sex” bed en route to earning a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics, to then becoming a world titleholder in the pros.
“I’m a fighter that’s been through a lot in my life,” said Davis, who is the first Norfolk boxer to hold a lightweight title since Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker was undisputed in that division during the early 1990s. “I lost myself, I found myself again. I told y’all a thousand times, I’ve been to the mental home. I’ve been through the trials and tribulations before I even got on this big platform, so now that I’m on this platform I know how to handle myself. Anything that goes on in that ring, it’s all business. I just stood on business tonight.”
One possibility for Davis’ first title defense could be a return to Norfolk, where he drew a sold-out crowd of 10,568 for his previous fight, a second-round knockout of Gustavo Lemos at The Scope in November.
Top Rank Vice President of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti confirmed as much with BoxingScene – but said an even bigger fight could get made elsewhere in the interim. Moretti said that one fight that isn’t likely to be made is a unification with Davis’ good friend Shakur Stevenson, who holds the WBC version of the lightweight title.
“But maybe he makes a hometown defense if we can come up with somebody to go to Norfolk, which would be wild,” said Moretti.
“Really, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to go to Norfolk, if he wants to do somebody else. I don’t know if we get a call from the guy in Baltimore [Gervonta Davis]. He’s up for anything. He doesn’t care.”
Keyshawn Davis seemed to hint at the possibility of another hometown fight, stating, “When we bring it back to Norfolk … if y’all miss my second trip in Norfolk, y’all is crazy.”
A fight with WBA titleholder Gervonta Davis, 30-0 (28 KOs), would appear to be the biggest fight that could be made in the 135lbs division. The southpaw Davis, who will face fellow DMV resident Lamont Roach Jnr on March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, has traded barbs with the unrelated titleholder who shares his surname.
Keyshawn Davis declined to address Gervonta Davis by name, replying, “Shit, y’all tell me,” when asked how big a fight with “Tank” would be now that both are holding belts. He did however allude to “two 135lbs champions that I would love to fight” in his post-fight interview, presumably “Tank” Davis and IBF titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Whoever he gets next, Keyshawn Davis expects to do big business with them.
“I want any big name, I want any big name that y’all know are names,” Davis said. “I don’t really care who it is. I feel like at this point, I made a big enough name for myself to get someone in there that is recognizable and it’s gonna be a big fight.
“People want to see ‘The Businessman’ fight.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.