Keyshawn Davis Wins Easily But With Another Stupid Moment

It was an easy victory Saturday night for Keyshawn Davis, who while talented, continues to do self-inflicted things that have in the past, and could still in the future, cost his career progress.

First, Davis improved to 15-0, 10 KOs in a rematch that was one sided and, at times, dull with Nahir Albright. The bout capped the Top Rank Boxing card in Davis' hometown of Norfolk, VA.

Fighting in front of his hometown crowd, the former world champion and 2021 Olympic Silver Medalist  was the busier and harder puncher over the 12 rounds delivering the expected performance his fans had anticipated.

The two were rematching their October 2023 bout that Davis won similarly, but tested positive for Marijuana and the result was vacated to a no-contest.  

From the opening bell, Davis controlled the bout  with his jab, and accuracy building an early lead. The Philly born Albright did have a brief moment in the fifth round when he stunned Davis with a clean right hand. Davis grabbed Albright, steadied himself and eventually, scored more shots of his own to win the round.

However, another incident happened Saturday night to call into question the talented Davis' judgement, again. and it legitimately could have cost him the win. That's when in the seventh round,  Davis lifted and slammed Albright sideways on his right side to the canvas in a move straight out of professional wrestling.

Watch the incident here:

Referee Malik Waleed didn't seem to initially know what to do, but ended up checking on Albright's status, and then, deducted Davis two points for the foul. More seriously, if Albright had injured his right shoulder from the slam, which isn't that far-fetched, the fight could have been stopped and Davis disqualified.

However, that did not happen and Davis controlled the action for the final rounds and actually rocked Albright a couple times late in the bout to cruise to a 118-108 on two cards and 117-109 on the third.

Davis said to DAZN in the ring afterwards,

"I felt amazing. I felt good. He’s a crafty fighter. He’s been around. I tried to go for the knockout. We all saw that he was hurt. I just didn’t get it. But I got the decision, and that’s all that matters.”

On the controversial slam in the seventh he defended his actions,

“He liked to punch and hold. He does that. So, he was on my neck, and I got angry and flipped him over.

"I felt like I was beating him up in every round. What really made me pick it up is that he caught me with one good shot. And I was like, 'I’m about to beat you up now. You ain’t getting nothing else off.'”

Controversy always seems to follow the talented Davis, as last year he was to have headlined for Top Rank defending his WBO 135 lb. crown in the same setting in Norfolk.  But, he came to the weigh-in an embarrassing four pounds over the limit and was stripped of the title. His opponent that weekend,  Edwin De Los Santos, chose to not fight him and their bout was off, but the rest of the card still fought.

Davis added to his dubious behavior and actions, when on fight night he went to the arena and in the locker room of Albright, who had beaten his brother on the undercard, got into an altercation with Albright and had to be separated by security. Davis was then ejected from the arena.

So, while, he won impressively Saturday and there will naturally be talk of Davis' next big fight, there still looms over him a "cloud of repeated bad decision making." And, the body slam of Albright in a fight was easily going to win didn't help that.