“Keyshawn, Shakur getting all your opponents, bro. You second fiddle. Straight up,” Bradley said on his YouTube channel. “You are second fiddle to Shakur. Shakur is daddy. You son.”
The situation becomes more complicated because Keyshawn and Shakur continue referring to each other as brothers and have shown little interest in fighting one another. That leaves Keyshawn in an awkward spot at 140 pounds because he is ranked No. 1 by the WBO while Shakur holds the title.
Unless Shakur moves up again or gives up the belt, Keyshawn’s route to a world title fight stays blocked by the same fighter Bradley says keeps moving ahead of him.
That’s a real career issue for Keyshawn because he’s already 27 and still chasing the breakthrough fight that turns him into a major star.
The uncomfortable part for Keyshawn is that his career has slowed at the wrong time. He is already 27, and he still has not had the defining fight that turns him into a genuine attraction. Instead, he is heading into a rematch with Albright, a fight that many fans already feel they have seen before.
Keyshawn recently said Top Rank wanted the Albright rematch, but the bigger issue may be that there were not many realistic alternatives available. Bradley openly pointed to the risk-reward problem surrounding Keyshawn.
“Keyshawn is a damn good fighter, but he don’t have enough for a fighter to be like, man, I’m willing to take that risk,” Bradley said.
That problem is unlikely to disappear at lightweight or 140 because Keyshawn’s size has become part of the discussion. After the four-pound weight miss ahead of the canceled fight with Edwin De Los Santos, many fans already expect him to move higher.
At this stage, Keyshawn may be better off stopping the constant talk about moving up and simply doing it. A jump to welterweight or even junior middleweight could create fresher opportunities and remove some of the criticism surrounding his weight issues.
More importantly, fighters at 147 and 154 are not likely to treat Keyshawn the same way smaller fighters do. The danger factor changes once he is no longer the naturally bigger man walking into the ring.
Bradley still picked Keyshawn to beat Albright in the rematch and predicted a stoppage if he performs the way he did against Jermaine Ortiz.
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