Lightweight contenders Keyshawn Davis and Andy Cruz’s recent fights were only separated by a span of a few weeks. Cruz outpointed Omar Salcido on January 25 while Davis will headline at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on February 14, challenging WBO lightweight titleholder Denys Berinchyk on ESPN.
But Davis says the two of them, who share amateur history, should stay apart in the pros for now.
“I’ll never say I’m never gonna fight him. I’m just saying he not ready now,” . “The fight is not ready yet. Let that shit keep marinating so it can be a pay-per-view attraction. I feel like it can be that. [...] I feel as he just keep winning, as he just keep moving up the professional ranks, it’s going to make more and more sense. You just got to let him do that.”
Davis and Cruz met four times in the amateurs. Cruz won all four, including in the finale of the men’s lightweight tournament in the 2020/2021 Olympics. Cruz won a decision and the gold medal for Cuba, while Davis went home to the United States with the silver.
Davis turned professional earlier in 2021, a handful of months before the Tokyo Olympics began, and is now 12-0 (8 KOs). Cruz had his pro debut in July 2023 and is now 5-0 (2 KOs).
Davis feels boxing fans and observers are pushing the 29-year-old Cruz much more, and much faster, than they did the 25-year-old Virginian.
“Bro [is] 5-0. When I was 5-0, y’all was telling me, ‘You talk too much trash. You got to put some work in. You ain’t ready yet,’ all that type of shit,” . “He 5-0 now, y’all say he ready to fight me. This shit is backwards. [...] I come to the professionals and I’m putting on crazy performances that’s actually great for the sport of boxing, but this one little leprechaun dude come here and y’all just think that he can just beat me just because he beat me as an amateur.
“Y’all crazy as hell. He’s got to put in more work. He don’t have a big fan base. I’m trying to fight people that’s actually, like, stars in this sport, just like myself or higher. Me fighting Andy Cruz is taking, like, two steps down. It doesn’t make business sense right now. I want to fight this dude. Genuinely. I want to beat his ass. Not only to shut everybody up, but to prove to him that I will knock you out.”
Cruz is ranked by all four major sanctioning bodies: No. 1 by the WBC, No. 3 by the IBF and WBA, and No. 15 by the WBO.
In the meantime, Davis has another Davis and another Cruz in mind.
“He don’t got the balls to fight me,” Keyshawn said of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
But Keyshawn would “love to fight” one of Gervonta’s past foes, former junior welterweight titleholder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.
Cruz, 27-3-1 (18 KOs), won a Fight of the Year candidate over Angel Fierro earlier this month. Cruz hasn’t fought at lightweight since a July 2023 win over Giovanni Cabrera, but Davis says he’s open to competing at a catch-weight.
“That’s something the fans would go crazy over,” Davis said. “That’s a Las Vegas fight. And we not fighting in no theater. We fighting in an arena. Everybody would show up for that fight.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter and . He is the co-host of the . David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.