The weigh-ins for Keyshawn Davis vs Edwin de los Santos took place yesterday and was very dramatic. Davis was scheduled to defend his WBO lightweight title for the first time. However, when weigh-ins came around Davis weighed 139.3lbs missing weight by 4.3lbs. This was a very substantial miss and had very big repercussions.
Consequences For Davis
Due to the weight miss, Keyshawn Davis has been stripped of his WBO title, which is now vacant. On top of that the fight has now been cancelled as Santos made the weight unlike Davis. Santos did get paid his full purse; however, he has now been robbed of his world title opportunity. For Davis he has lost his championship and is no longer a world champion at lightweight.
This weight miss also quite clearly shows what Davis had planned following this title defence. It seems as though Davis has plans to move up a weight class. Davis has the size for super lightweight and possibly welterweight so it would not be shocking if this was supposed to be his last fight at 135lbs. If he does indeed move up, Keyshawn could definitely find success against the champions at super lightweight.
Richardson Hitchins is defending his IBF belt against George Kambosos Jr next week and Alberto Puello is defending his WBC title against Subriel Matias in July. Davis has a good chance at beating any of those fighters. We shall see what Davis’ future will look like in due time.
Broader Implications
Davis missing weight and losing his title doesn’t only have implications for him but also the rest of the division. For a start it means the WBO title is vacant and ripe for the taking. The most likely next cause of action is the 1 and 2 in the WBO rankings will fight for this vacant belt. In this case the number 1 is Brit Sam Noakes and number 2 is American Abdullah Mason. So we very well may be seeing a vacant title fight sooner rather than later.
Speaking of Mason, he will now be the main event of what was the Davis vs Santos card. Only Davis vs Santos was pulled from the card and the rest of the fights will go ahead as planned. Mason is an excellent undefeated lightweight prospect sitting on a record of 18-0 with an 88% KO rate. He will be defending his unblemished record against 26-4 Jeremia Nakathila. Nakathila is a solid opponent and has been a testing stick for other top guys at 135 such as Shakur Stevenson and Raymond Muratalla.
If Mason comes through which he likely will his next fight may very well be for the vacant WBO title against Noakes. It also means we will have 2 newly crowned champions with Vasyl Lomachenko’s retirement the IBF title will also be open. Muratalla is the current IBF interim world champion and will be likely fighting the winner of Andy Cruz vs Hironori Mishiro for the world title.
New champions bring around a new opportunity for unification, particularly when the likely champions are all in their 20s and ready to fight. Lightweight continues to be a division of excitement and we will see what happens in the coming months.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
