Keyshawn Angered by De Los Santos’ Criticisms Before June 7th Fight

Keyshawn Davis says Edwin De Los Santos is starting to get him “pissed off” with his criticisms of his talent level going into their headliner in 15 days on June 7th. Davis (13-0, 9 KOs) hand-picked De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) for his first defense of his WBO lightweight title, and it appears he wanted him to be a gracious challenger.

De Los Santos isn’t doing that. He’s let Keyshawn know what he thinks of him, his talent, and his carefully managed career. Like many people, Edwin thinks Davis’ ego is too big, and he wants to knock him off his high horse on June 7th at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia. Davis vs. De Los Santos will headline on ESPN and ESPN+.

The buzz that Keyshawn thought this fight would generate failed because fans have ignored it. They see this as another cherry pick by Davis, like his past opponents, Denys Berinchyk, Gustavo Lemos, Jose Pedraza, and Miguel Madueno.

Truths Infuriate Keyshawn

“Everything he’s been saying is [angering me]. I just feel like he’s been talking and not making sense. I understand if you’re giving your opinion and you’re actually breaking it down and why you feel this way,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fighthype, talking about Edwin De Los Santos trashing him in the media ahead of their fight on June 7th.

For Keyshawn to be getting angry at De Los Santos’ comments, it can only mean that he’s spoken truths that he doesn’t want to confront in himself. He’d rather avoid talking about his flaws out in the open, and it infuriates him that De Los Santos can see through the fake smokescreen that he portrays to the public. Edwin knows a phony when he sees one.

“I feel like he’s just talking to promote the fight, which is nothing wrong with that, but it’s [angering] me,” said Keyshawn, reacting to being told that De Los Santos said he doesn’t have boxing skills on the level of Shakur Stevenson.  “I don’t think there’s no way he thinks I have no boxing ability, and I’m 13-0 and a world champion. That doesn’t make sense. There’s no way he can really feel that way.”

De Los Santos does think Keyshawn lacks boxing skills. He also says he’s “soft” after watching videos of his past fights, noting his reaction to getting hit. He said, “If he stops there, he dies,” which suggests that if Davis stops running on June 7th, he will get destroyed.

“I feel like every opponent I got in there with, I showed a different element. I didn’t show what the next fighter showed,” said Davis. “You don’t know what to expect when it comes to me. You just know you’re going to see some s***. Just expect that on June 7th.”

We do know what to expect from Keyshawn on June 7th. He’s going to box, play it safe, and resort to WWE moves to keep the knockout artist De Los Santos from massacring him like he did Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela.  There’s no chance that Davis will fight him the way he did against the light-hitting Berinchyk or the much smaller 5’5″ Gustavo Lemos.

“Berinchyk is a southpaw,” said Keyshawn, reacting to being told that he hasn’t fought a southpaw for a long time. “I knocked him out when he was a southpaw.”

I don’t know where Keyshawn got that nonsense about Berinchyk being southpaw, but it sounds like it’s something made up on the fly. If you’ve followed Berinchyk’s career, he’s always fought out of the orthodox stance since he was an amateur. Like many talented Ukrainians, he can change stances to southpaw, but that’s not his natural stance.

Keyshawn’s True Weight Class?

“He’s going to do whatever he can to survive,” said Keyshawn about De Los Santos. “I picked the best opponent that was available. I would like to fight more worthy opponents, but he was the guy that I had on the table. I feel he still gives me a hell of a challenge. But this guy is another guy. I fought better guys in the amateurs. If he didn’t have no power, how good would he be?” said Keyshaw about De Los Santos.

You could flip Keyshawn’s comment about De Los Santos around. How good would Keyshawn be if he weren’t killing himself to drain down to fight against smaller fighters at lightweight? Would Davis thrive if he fought at 154, which some fans believe is where he should be fighting?

Can Keyshawn compete against fighters his own size if he chooses to fight at junior middleweight? I don’t think so. Put him in with the apex predators at 154, Vergil Ortiz, Sebastian Fundora, and Bakhram Murtazaliev, and it would be a feeding frenzy.