Keyshawn Davis hopes a top-five lightweight will give him an opportunity to prove himself sometime soon.
“The Businessman” understands, though, that the dollars would have to make sense for George Kambosos Jr. to fight him. If the former unified lightweight champion can be compensated properly, however, Davis would gladly travel halfway around the world to box Kambosos in the Sydney native’s home country of Australia.
The undefeated Davis, 24, will compete on Kambosos’ undercard Saturday night at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma. ESPN will air a 10-round lightweight bout between Davis (8-0, 6 KOs), an Olympic silver medalist from Norfolk, Virginia, and Belgian veteran Francesco Patera (28-3, 10 KOs) before Kambosos battles British underdog Maxi Hughes in the 12-round main event of broadcast set to begin at 10 p.m. EDT.
“I think Kambosos will fight anybody, honestly,” Davis told BoxingScene.com. “I don’t think he’s scared of nobody. He’s also smart, too, so if it make money, it makes sense. You know, he not just gonna get in there for anything. But I’m pretty sure if me and him was to fight we wouldn’t be fightin’ in no Oklahoma. You understand what I’m saying? So, maybe he would fight me. It’s a business, but would he fight me? Yeah, he’ll fight me. But on the business end, it’s just gotta make sense.”
The driven Davis’ international experience during his amateur career has made him confident that he could travel to Kambosos’ home country and soundly defeat an opponent who has only lost to undefeated, undisputed lightweight champ Devin Haney.
“I’m a fighter that fights overseas, [went] to people backyards, where the whole country was against me, and I still came out with a unanimous decision,” Davis said. “So, I have no problem going overseas. Let’s do it. I’ve never been to Australia, so I’d love to see new things, experience new things, and then to go fight over there, it’s no problem to me. … I would love to fight him in Australia.”
Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs) will return to the ring against Hughes (26-5-2, 5 KOs) for his first fight since Haney decisively defeated him in their 12-round rematch October 16 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. In their previous bout, Haney (30-0, 15 KOs), of Henderson, Nevada, became boxing’s first fully unified lightweight champion of the four-belt era by dominating Kambosos in a 12-rounder that took place in June 2022 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
Handicappers have made Kambosos a 3-1 favorite to defeat England’s Hughes, who has won seven fights in a row. They’ll fight for Hughes’ IBO lightweight title and the unoccupied second spot in the IBF’s 135-pound rankings.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.