Light-weight contenders Keyshawn Davis and Andy Cruz’s latest fights had been solely separated by a span of some weeks. Cruz outpointed Omar Salcido on January 25 whereas Davis will headline at The Theater at Madison Sq. Backyard on February 14, difficult WBO light-weight titleholder Denys Berinchyk on ESPN.
However Davis says the 2 of them, who share beginner historical past, ought to keep aside within the professionals for now.
“I’ll by no means say I’m by no means gonna combat him. I’m simply saying he not prepared now,” Davis mentioned in an interview with Matt Lenihan of Boxing Social. “The combat isn’t prepared but. Let that shit hold marinating so it may be a pay-per-view attraction. I really feel like it may be that. […] I really feel as he simply hold successful, as he simply hold transferring up the skilled ranks, it’s going to make increasingly more sense. You simply obtained to let him do this.”
Davis and Cruz met 4 occasions within the amateurs. Cruz received all 4, together with within the finale of the boys’s light-weight match within the 2020/2021 Olympics. Cruz received a call and the gold medal for Cuba, whereas Davis went house to america with the silver.
Davis turned skilled earlier in 2021, a handful of months earlier than the Tokyo Olympics started, and is now 12-0 (8 KOs). Cruz had his professional debut in July 2023 and is now 5-0 (2 KOs).
Davis feels boxing followers and observers are pushing the 29-year-old Cruz way more, and far quicker, than they did the 25-year-old Virginian.
“Bro [is] 5-0. Once I was 5-0, y’all was telling me, ‘You discuss an excessive amount of trash. You bought to place some work in. You ain’t prepared but,’ all that kind of shit,” Davis advised Marcos Villegas of Struggle Hub TV. “He 5-0 now, y’all say he able to combat me. This shit is backwards. […] I come to the professionals and I’m placing on loopy performances that’s really nice for the game of boxing, however this one little leprechaun dude come right here and y’all simply suppose that he can simply beat me simply because he beat me as an beginner.
“Y’all loopy as hell. He’s obtained to place in additional work. He don’t have a giant fan base. I’m making an attempt to combat folks that’s really, like, stars on this sport, similar to myself or greater. Me combating Andy Cruz is taking, like, two steps down. It doesn’t make enterprise sense proper now. I need to combat this dude. Genuinely. I need to beat his ass. Not solely to close all people up, however to show to him that I’ll knock you out.”
Cruz is ranked by all 4 main sanctioning our bodies: No. 1 by the WBC, No. 3 by the IBF and WBA, and No. 15 by the WBO.
Within the meantime, Davis has one other Davis and one other Cruz in thoughts.
“He don’t obtained the balls to combat me,” Keyshawn mentioned of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
However Keyshawn would “like to combat” certainly one of Gervonta’s previous foes, former junior welterweight titleholder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.
Cruz, 27-3-1 (18 KOs), received a Struggle of the 12 months candidate over Angel Fierro earlier this month. Cruz hasn’t fought at light-weight since a July 2023 win over Giovanni Cabrera, however Davis says he’s open to competing at a catch-weight.
“That’s one thing the followers would go loopy over,” Davis mentioned. “That’s a Las Vegas combat. And we not combating in no theater. We combating in an enviornment. All people would present up for that combat.”
