The boxing world was stunned when rising lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis found himself at the center of chaos on the night that was supposed to be his fight against Edwin De Los Santos. After missing weight by a significant margin, Davis was pulled from the card, but the drama didn’t end there. Later that night, a viral video captured the 26-year-old Olympian in a heated brawl backstage with boxer Nahir Albright after Albright defeated Davis’s brother Kelvin.
"I'll Be A Better Person" Keyshawn Davis Owns Up to Mistakes, Claims He Did Not Get Into Brawl originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The boxing world was stunned when rising lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis found himself at the center of chaos on the night that was supposed to be his fight against Edwin De Los Santos. After missing weight by a significant margin, Davis was pulled from the card, but the drama didn’t end there.
Later that night, a viral video captured the 26-year-old Olympian in a heated brawl backstage with boxer Nahir Albright after Albright defeated Davis’s brother Kelvin. Davis’ discipline and focus were called into question, and critics questioned if the undefeated prospect was letting outside distractions derail his promising future.
Recently, Davis sat down with Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show to speak on the situation.
Davis didn’t shy away from accountability, addressing both the altercation and his weight miss head-on.
"I'm not up here trying to win nobody over. I'm not up here talking down to nobody,” Davis said to Helwani, somberly. “I'm up here saying that I'm wrong & when I come back to boxing, I'm gonna be a better person because of God, honestly."
The Virginia native acknowledged that as a professional athlete, he’s held to a higher standard, and his actions that night fell short.
At the same time, he wanted to set the record straight, and claims that he did not put his hands on Albright as was reported initially and caught on camera.
“I walked in his room, cordially, saying, ‘Good fight,’ but when we got in there, sh— happened so fast. Security started running in there started breaking sh— up,” Davis says. “I’m just like, ‘Damn!’ They’re like ‘Get out! Get out!’... then we get out and get in out locker room.”
“We walk back out the locker room, my brother’s locker room and in the hallway, we see some more commotion. So my natural reaction, I just start running to it,” Davis claimed. “That sh— is already going down, and that’s when you see me running up... looking everywhere... and I see the mother of my child is like snapping and sh—, so I’m thinking somebody put their hands on her.”
He let Helwani know, “I never put my hands on nobody that night... only people that touched him were f— security that was backing us up from each other because they’re thinking that we’re about to do something.”
When asked why he missed weight, he told Helwani, “[I was] undisciplined for sure, not being true to myself. Just knowing that it’s time to move up, and just knowing how my body is feeling. I told my team, ‘This is my last time doing this,’ for real.”
He also wanted to apologize for a slight altercation he had with De Los Santos’ promoter.
“I smacked his promoter’s hand out of the way, disrespectfully,” Davis recalled. “I’m saying this to say, I apologize to you, sir, because you’re old enough to be my father, probably my grandfather. Nobody of that age should even be going through that.”
Now that he feels he has cleared the air, he let Helwani and his fans know that his next bout will have to wait until he has sorted things out in his life outside the ring.
“I’ll come back when my mental is ready,” Davis revealed. “I will fight again, like in a year. I need some time.”
Watch the full episode of The Ariel Helwani Show here:
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: General Sports
