Keyshawn Davis needs a new opponent for his fight scheduled for April 8.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Emmanuel Tagoe has withdrawn from their 10-round lightweight bout. Davis-Tagoe would’ve opened an ESPN tripleheader from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Davis’ handlers are in the process of finding a new opponent for a fight that’ll take place six weeks from Saturday night on the Shakur Stevenson-Shuichiro Yoshino undercard. Matchmakers for Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. intend to find a durable foe for Davis, an ambitious prospect who wants to fight legitimate lightweight contenders sooner rather than later.
Ghana’s Tagoe (32-2, 15 KOs), who went the 12-round distance with heavy-handed Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) last April 9 at Alamodome in San Antonio, agreed to face Davis late in January. The 34-year-old Tagoe never signed a contract, though, and his team informed Top Rank recently that he will not go through with the fight for reasons that haven’t been disclosed to BoxingScene.com.
Davis (7-0, 5 KOs), a 2021 Olympic silver medalist from Norfolk, Virginia, wants a greater challenge than Mexican veteran Juan Carlos Burgos provided December 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The 23-year-old Davis dominated the durable Burgos (35-7-3, 21 KOs) in a 10-rounder ESPN aired that night. All three judges scored that bout a shutout for Davis, who won 80-72 on each card.
Though Davis didn’t become the first opponent to beat Burgos by knockout, he showed that he is more than ready for another step up in competition.
ESPN’s three-bout broadcast April 8 also will include hard-hitting heavyweight Jared Anderson. BoxingScene.com first reported Wednesday that Anderson (13-0, 13 KOs), of Toledo, Ohio, will battle George Arias (18-0, 7 KOs), of the Bronx, New York, in the 10-round co-feature of that telecast.
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs), a Newark native who has won world titles in two weight classes, and Japan’s Yoshino (16-0, 12 KOs) will meet in a 12-round WBC lightweight elimination match. The winner will become the WBC’s mandatory challenger for whomever emerges victorious when fully unified lightweight champion Devin Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) faces three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) on May 20 at a venue to be determined.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.