Keyshawn Davis (USA) vs Nahir Albright (USA) BOXING HIGHLIGHTS

You got your instructions in the dressing room. This is a 10-round fight for the USBA title. I want you to protect yourself at all times. At all times, I want you to obey my command. Touch gloves, back to your corners. We always talk about belts don't matter. But, when it's a regional belt, Tim, it gets you closer to your world championship dream. And that's what Keyshawn Davis feels he's ready for in his 10th professional fight. Absolutely, and he's in match tough. Wu is not a slouch. He has came into this match with some good records, with some good fighters on his record. And the last guy he faced was Carlos Balderas, an Olympian. And, you know, he's on a run of competitive and tough fights. He upset Balderas, the Olympian. He beat Esteban Falcao, who is 11-0. He lost to Jermaine Ortiz, who was 14-0-1. Ortiz gave Loma all he could handle. He beat Michael Dutchover, who was 15-1. His last five opponents are 69-3-1. And now they say, alright, take on the kid who many believe is the future of the lightweight division. And here he is in against Keyshawn Davis. Wu doing that stab jab down to the body. Right hand over the top. Just wait for it. Right now, Keyshawn is not choosing to throw it just yet. He's still trying to find his range, calculating that. Trying to adjust to the speed of Wu. But sooner or later, there was the right hand right there. Just missed off the mark. A little double flick with the right hand from Keyshawn Davis. You see the speed. There's power behind that as well from the Tokyo Olympian silver medalist. You see the pink and white trunks that Keyshawn is wearing. They're in honor of his grandmother, Jackie, who passed away from breast cancer. So he's bringing that to light in her memory. It's got quotes from the members of his family and what Jackie, his grandma, meant to all those young men and women who she raised. See the speed. Once again, just quick hands from Keyshawn Davis. Nice left from Nahir Albright. Albright's getting off to a quick start. He's not slitting back and allowing Keyshawn to get comfortable. He's trying to make him uncomfortable. And he's not allowing him to counter. He saw the right hand was going to come and Wu did a great job just stepping inside the pocket to cover himself. This is a great step-up fight for a fighter like Keyshawn Davis because he's in there with an athletic fighter who's got quick hands as well, who has an answer for everything that Davis wants to throw. But that overhand right from Davis found a home on the chin of Albright. See those subtle feints right there. As the young Keyshawn Davis, a little tentative and not sure when to punch. And you see the physical strength of Nahir Albright bringing down Davis, standing his ground. Those are the things you have to do against a young fighter with the skill and the moxie of Keyshawn Davis. Yeah, you don't want him to get comfortable. You want to keep him uncomfortable all the time. And if you get him defensive, he's not throwing punches, then how the heck is he going to be able to win rounds? You can't win rounds just with defense. You saw Keyshawn Davis take a peek up. There's a giant screen behind us. And fighters have a tendency, Tim, of wanting to look at themselves, do what they're doing in the ring. Ooh, nice right hand over the top right there. Just beautiful timing right there, catching Wu as he was stepping right onto his front foot to engage. Nice short right hand over the top. Another one from Keyshawn Davis. And the reason that Nahir Albright is nicknamed Wu is because when he was in the gym and fighting in the amateurs, he would do stuff that left people saying, whoo, so that's how he got his nickname. The businessman, Keyshawn Davis, his nickname is because he's all about making money in the ring and becoming the next American superstar at lightweight, which is loaded with talent. Well, Keyshawn is all about control, too. He likes to control every scenario inside the ring. He fights when he wants to fight. Just because Wu is fighting doesn't mean that he has to fight. He's just taking his time right now. He has a ton of rounds to work. You know, still his back. But at the same time, you don't want to get Wu confident and getting off to a quick start. And, you know, Keyshawn loses these rounds, these early rounds. Good right hand. Right hand has been there for Keyshawn Davis. He's created the openings for it to land. And when you spar a fighter like top pound for pound, number one in the world, Terrence Crawford, that's going to toughen you up. Iron sharpens iron. And then when you spend time like he did with Floyd Mayweather and gets advice for himself from his team, he says, all that knowledge, all that love I get from some of the best in the game, it makes me a better fighter. And he's showing that tonight. I know you don't see what I see, but I'm going to let you know what I see. Keyshawn right now is in total control right now. Doesn't look like he's doing much, but he is. He's reading Wu right now. And as the rounds continue, he's going to start landing clean shots. Wu is already starting to break down. And when I say break down, his technique is not the greatest. We had a warning from James Green to Keyshawn Davis to keep those punches up, but it didn't really seem like they were low, and that's kind of the expression that Keyshawn gave to the referee. We've seen him deduct points tonight, as you see the commissioner signing off on Vincenzo Gualtieri, the IBF world champion's gloves that he'll be using in the unification bout tonight against Zanabek Alemhanoula, a pair of unbeaten champions stepping in the ring. Either he takes the belts back to Germany, or Zanabek takes them back home to Kazakhstan. So Kazakhstan finishing up the wrapping there. Russ Amber, he's 14-0 with nine knockouts, the boogeyman of the division. He'll have a chance to prove it tonight against another champion. How rare is that? Well, this is the first unification at middleweight since Gennady Golovkin was able to do that, and you'll see it in tonight's main event. There's that jab from Keyshawn controlling the range. He controls the range. He controls everything in there. Everything. You know, Wu's doing a good job using his jab, sticking and moving. He's had success, but it won't continue. Soon as Keyshawn starts to find his mark, and what he needs to do is he needs to start attacking Wu's body to slow him down, to keep him in front of him. The reason, Tim, is a lot of guys can take a head shot, but when you get hit downstairs, it's a different type of pain, and if you're capable of inflicting that type of pain, you become a complete fighter. It is again. Anytime Wu goes into the high guard, you should expect offense coming back from Keyshawn. Keyshawn likes guys that like to shell up in front of him. He knows how to find the holes around the guard. There's that overhand right once again. If Albright reaches with that jab, you can be sure that Davis is going to make him pay. Albright has the little herky-jerky style, moving his hips, moving his shoulders back and forth. Keyshawn isn't able to know when he's going to shoot those shots. He disguised it with that movement, back and forth, back and forth. Keyshawn Davis is about the subtleties of his game. It's those intangibles, those small movements that don't look like a lot, but make a huge difference at an elite level like that range control there. Well, he's getting him lunging now. He was starting to lunge, but Keyshawn, there it is, a left hook. That's what I was waiting on, and he's going to have more of that, especially when Wu throws his right hand. Just watch his back foot, how it lifts up off the canvas. He gets himself off balance. That left hook's going to be there. That left hook to the body landed perfectly on the flanks of Nahir Albright, who is a great singer, actually. Nice right hand, and you saw the legs of Albright start to shake, and here is Keyshawn Davis pummeling Albright on the ropes, but Albright still has his legs under him. See that pulse right there? Just lining it up, using that frame. Nice little pulse right there from Keyshawn. Didn't I tell you that his technique was starting to falter? His form is starting to go by the wayside. That's exactly what's happening to Wu right now. He's breaking down. It's not always if you land, but it's how you set things up, and that's the stage of this fight for Keyshawn. That's the best part about him. Keyshawn is a terrific counterpuncher. Look at that right hand attempt over the jab for the double jabs of Wu. Got his head off the line. Just missed off the mark, but check this out. Look at this setup right there. Beautiful, beautiful framework right there with the right hand. See the extension right there, lift parry, boom, lift your head up, son. Take that right hand. See, those are advanced moves right there. Those are subtle moves that you don't see in real time. And that's what we talked about, the skill level of Keyshawn, is those subtleties that make him special. And it may not show up in the box score, but at the end of the night, they continue to pile up points, and you see how he is now switching his tactics to go down to the body of Nahir Albright. He's playing with Albright right now. He's doing whatever he wants to do. It's going to be tougher and tougher to get opposition for Keyshawn Davis on his rise to a world title opportunity. You see the counter right once again. That was a catch and shoot right there. You know, you catch the puncher on the right side, and you throw the punch that you caught. Throw it right back at him. So the left hand gets thrown on the right side. That right hand comes. Oh, a little wrestling here. Neither guy looked at the referee. No, not at all. It's a fight. This leads us to a world title unification. Vincenzo Gualtieri against Janabek Alimhanala, and you see how, round by round, Davis is more than doubling the connected punches of Albright, and this is getting ridiculous. Folks, I was getting a little frustration going on right now from Wu. That's what you're seeing. And we've called eight fights on our ESPN Plus. Under Mark Tim, this referee, James Green, did deduct one point from each fighter in the second fight of the night, so he does not play around. So both guys are going to have to be careful with that. Wu letting his hands go here in the sixth round, but then he gets caught with that overhand right from Keyshawn Davis. Keyshawn was complaining to his trainer in between rounds. He said, you know, look for that right hand over the top. He said, he has a long jab. It's hard to really get to it. And they said, Andre Ward. Do the Andre Ward. So what I'm thinking is that stab jab downstairs to be able to slip underneath that jab and come over the top of the right hand. Shout out to the International Boxing Hall of Famer. Send our love to Andre Ward. Nice uppercut in the inside short, and Wu anticipated that through a left hook down to the body. Keyshawn is just stalking at this point. Feet planted, looking for that shot. Yeah, but see, that's the thing. He'll use defense. He'll let you expand some energy or expense energy, make you miss, and then lure you to sleep. And boom, he'll hit you with a shot. You know, it's a bit frustrating when a guy is standing in front of you and you really can't really hit him like you want to hit him. Keyshawn is slippery in there. Small little subtle movements, moving his head, slipping. Outside, underneath. Good jab. A power jab from Keyshawn Davis. Sets up that one-two. Keyshawn starting to find his mark now. Trying to get a little bit more consistent with his work. Seems like a slight abrasion. Let's see if it doesn't become bigger. Mark, what do you have on that? The cut, Mike Babani just told me, small cut, no problem. We got it under control. Don Clifton, I asked him, Albright's training, what do you do to change the course of this fight, change its rhythm? He goes, I need my guy to pick up the pace. I need him to jab more. Not just once, but two and three times. That's a tall order against a fighter who can counter as well as Keyshawn does. Exactly, and that's what's happening right now. He's shutting him down. Every punch he throws, he's getting hit with something. Something's coming back. See that feint? Trying to drop the levels. There it is, a nice little joust, a little prose. And then right hand over the top of the jab. Tim, you mentioned the eyes, and I think that shot gave us a perfect illustration of how Keyshawn keeps control based on his eyes and he anticipates what you're going to do. Yes, everything you do, and he fights on his terms only. Just because you're throwing a lot of punches doesn't mean that he's going to throw a lot of punches. He's going to tie you up, he's going to step inside, he's going to allow the ref to do his work, he'll move when he needs to, come back to the center of the ring, but he fights on his own terms. Off his neck, off his neck, right, right, off his neck. Mark Regal was mentioning the fact that Mike Labonte feels he's got the cut under control, but now it's starting to actually bleed. Yeah. It's not causing a lot of trouble yet. Yeah, I don't know if it's a beating in his vision just yet, but it is starting to drip down. Again, you see the technique right there, and you see the punches that were thrown. Those are arm punches thrown right there by Wu. Not fully committed with his shots. Break! Let me have it, let me have it, let me have it. Break clean, break clean. I like how James Green actually, when he stopped him, he set the tone for the rest of the fight. He was not going to allow them to wrestle in there, and it's become a different fight. You know, this fight was supposed to be challenging for Keyshawn. It is actually a simple fight, easy fight for Keyshawn. Completely different skill set here. But he does want to impress, and he does want to send a message to the rest of the lightweights, because when you look at 135, Devin Haney is still the undisputed champion. Lomachenko's there, Tank Davis, Shakur Stevenson, William Zapata just had a great performance. Pitbull Cruz, Frank Martin is there. So he really wants to prove that once those belts are vacant, he deserves to go and fight for one of those. Good shot, two-quad combination right there from Wu. It beats that urgency that Nahir Albright is feeling with the blood, with the issue, with his vision. I got it, I got it. Break, break, break clean, break clean. You can't box, rough it up. It's all part of the plan. Stop pushing, stop pushing. Nice take from Albright. Both were landing the jab simultaneously. And Albright finally gets his right-hand go. Just waiting on Keyshawn to turn it up. I don't know if he's going to wait one more round and let Wu weaken a little bit more. But right now it seems like he's taking this round off. For his career, Keyshawn Davis lands at around a 52% clip on his power punches tonight. He's landing at 43%. It just goes to show you, you can never take anything for granted in this ring. And Keyshawn, after hurting Albright, maybe you thought, ooh, he's mine. And guess what? That's what Pacquiao thought when Juan Manuel Marquez landed that right. Exactly. Mark, we're in round number nine. What's your score after eight full rounds? 80-72, I still have a shutout by Keyshawn, despite that rather impressive punch by Wu. I mean, Keyshawn's making a pretty good fighter look ordinary here. Ordinary. Bad. And that is what great fighters do. Esteban Falcao, 11-0. Nahir Albright upset him. Jermaine Ortiz gave him some trouble at 14-0-1, although Ortiz is his last loss in February 2022. Balderas, an Olympian in 2016. Right. Thought, this is my step-up fight. Well, he got beat July 28th. And that got Nahir Albright this fight because the promoters thought it would be Balderas against Keyshawn Davis. Olympian versus Olympian. Not the case because Albright comes in with a mindset to win. Break. I got you. Let me have it. Break clean. See that right hand as Keyshawn was stepping straight back. Wu came in with a jab and a nice right hand right over the top by Keyshawn. Keyshawn buys his time. He allows his opponents to wear themselves out. He allows them to throw and try to catch him. And then he'll turn it up later in the fight and land something significant and try to hurt him. See, all defense. A lot of defense from Keyshawn. But he's looking to place that one kill shot to get his man in trouble. I don't know if Keyshawn's corner said, hey, you got this, just box. No, this is Keyshawn. He likes to break you down mentally. He takes his time. Again, he fights on his own terms. Just because you're swinging doesn't mean he's going to hit that he has to. That rare ability to fight off the ropes. Gets off the ropes. Turns Nahir Albright. And Albright responds with a nice right to the body. Albright stepping on the gas right now. The influence of Terrence Butt Crawford as well as Shakur Stephenson. This young man has a crew around him in a good sense that looks out for him. And it all starts with his mother, Wanda, who's his manager. His brothers are also fighting. They call themselves the DB3, the Davis Brothers 3. Keyon is going to make his pro debut soon. And we just saw Kelvin Davis earn his 10th professional win tonight as well on our ESPN Plus undercard. So this is a fighting family and this is a moment for Davis to take over. Keyon doesn't want to mess around with referee James Green. Keyon's not feeling well. I'm just going to let you know that right now. I mean there's so many opportunities for him to be able to land counters. And you see he's just trying to go through the motions right now. Could be issues again with his stomach. It has been a lingering issue since the Olympics that Keyshawn Davis has been dealing with. He said he hired a personal chef to be with him this entire camp. Felt better than ever. But then come fight night, you never know how your body's going to react. Oh, nice counter from Nahir Albright taking it to Keyshawn Davis here. There it is, letting them hands go. I told you. You got to fight it with good defense. You let your hands go, especially if he's slipping and trying to avoid bobbing and weaving. Something will eventually get in. And right there you see Albright having success just letting his hands go. Have to say, great finish from Nahir Albright over the last three rounds. Getting those hands to land on the chin of Keyshawn Davis, who proved tonight that he does have some whiskers because Nahir Albright has seven knockouts and 16 wins. This fight comes to an end. They go after the bell. Nahir Albright proved to be competitive. Keyshawn Davis showed exactly why he is considered a blue-chip prod. Ladies and gentlemen, after 10 rounds here inside the Fort Bend Epicenter, we go to the judges' scorecards for the official decision. John Basile scores the bout 95-95. Robert Hoyle scores the bout 96-94. And David Sutherland scores the bout 97-93 for your winner by majority decision. And still, USBA WBO Intercontinental WBC USA Lightweight Champion, Keyshawn, The Businessman, Davis!