After successfully marking his return to boxing with a 12th-round TKO of Jamaine Ortiz this past January, Keyshawn Davis wanted to further ingratiate himself to fight fans and beyond.
So, he looked toward something that was intriguing him for quite some time — live streaming.
“I recently was looking at streamers like ‘Yo, they lead a fun life — they travel, they meet people,’” Davis told DAZN News during the buildup to facing Nahir Albright in a homecoming rematch Saturday night in Norfolk, Virginia, and live on DAZN.
“I was like, ‘Yo, I would like to do that!’” he continued. “Eventually, I told the people that helped me out with the stream — my production team — I said ‘I think we should start streaming, instead of just dropping vlogs on YouTube.’ One thing led to another and we were streaming.”
Davis, 27, began live-streaming on the Kick app, clipping his best moments during a March open-gym run and posting them on his Instagram and X accounts, where he touts a combined 454,000-plus followers.
The highlights? Everything from sparring with rapper Blueface and viral boxer "Aaron the Plumber" to doing the Ali shuffle in front of Muhammad Ali’s grandson Nico Ali Walsh, and scrapping with WBC featherweight world champion Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington while dressed in plain clothes in an entertaining session that was more WWE than boxing.
Fans beyond just boxing followed along, plumping up Davis’ profile rather organically. What they discovered is something already known around the sport’s inner circles: Davis is a magnetic personality who just so happens to be a sensational boxer and former lightweight champion of the world as well.
“The streaming tour that I did got me the most followers I got at one time in my life,” Davis said. “I ain’t gonna say how much people I won over because I don’t really try to win anybody over.”
What’s best is it all came naturally for Davis.
“I was just training and more people were just finding out about me and they were just like ‘I like this guy’ and they started following me,” he continued. “I’m just being myself and stream. And show a lot of myself outside of the boxing world.”
Especially his humor. One Kick clip had Davis telling two women that he's trying to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., only to walk away from them saying: "I said I was fighting Floyd ... Floyd will beat my ass. I will never fight Floyd."
Davis says he only got to live-stream about eight times before he had to hone in on training camp in preparation for this weekend’s rematch with Albright. But expect his return shortly thereafter.
“I’m still very, very new to this,” Davis said of the streaming world. “Definitely something I’d like to do more often, for sure.”
Watch Keyshawn Davis and Nahir Albright on DAZN this Saturday, May 16, with your subscription. Monthly and annual options available.