Newly crowned world champion Keyshawn Davis who makes his first defense this weekend knows more about Shakur Stevenson than most think.
Both are world champions and new stars in the sport from America, in many ways representing the new generation that has arrived now in pound for pound world boxing.
Keyshawn Davis Opens Up On Boxing Shakur Stevenson Before
Speaking to ‘All The Smoke Fight’ with Andre Ward, Keyshawn Davis revealed:
“When he first came to the gym, he was popular—Shakur was the guy. Everyone in the amateur scene knew him. I was more standoffish, seeing that and not really talking to him. I didn’t care, honestly. He was cool, but I didn’t know him like that. After we sparred, though, it was like, “Oh, damn, bro.” I realized he was actually all right, not a prima donna or anything like that. We really started to click after we sparred. That’s the universal language in boxing. You might feel a certain way beforehand, but once you get in the ring, there’s respect. I love that about the sport—it’s the only sport where you can try to knock someone’s head off and then hug them afterward. That’s crazy to me. It’s normal for us to hug, but from the outside looking in, it’s not normal. We just fought each other for 12 rounds, you tried to hurt me, I tried to hurt you, and then it’s, “Hey, man, respect, love, bro.” It’s wild.”
That is almost a unversial thing there in terms of the respect that fellow fighters have for one another.
But when the fight is on obviously that goes out the window, and returns again when the fight is over.
It is very rare that bad blood continues into retirement for boxers.
Look at the likes of Amir Khan and Carl Froch recently, Khan and Kell Brook even too.
More amicable than they previously were some years ago.
That’s boxing.
Here are the worldwide in all main cities fight times for Keyshawn Davis’ fight this weekend in boxing.