New Year's Resolutions for Boxing: For Keyshawn Davis to roar in a redemptive year

Keyshawn Davis makes his return to the ring January 31, when he takes on Jamaine Ortiz in super lightweight action. The bout will be part of the Ring 6 main card headlined by Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and live on DAZN PPV.

That immediately brings us to DAZN News’ eighth New Year’s Resolution for boxing in 2026.

For Keyshawn Davis to roar in a redemptive year

(Getty Images)

Davis is coming off a bittersweet 2025 to say the least. His campaign started on a positive note when he blasted Denys Berinchyk via fourth-round knockout inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden to become the new WBO lightweight world champion at 25 years old last February.

But what was supposed to be a Norfolk, Virginia homecoming title defense for Davis later in the year turned into a nightmare.

Davis weighed in 4.3 pounds over the lightweight limit of his June title defense against Edwin De Los Santos. That effectively scrapped his headlining fight at Scope Arena and stripped Davis of his WBO lightweight title. Abdullah Mason slid into the main event instead.

But things actually grew worse for Davis from there. While Mason was fighting, boxer Nahir Albright alleged in an interview with ESPN’s Mark Kriegel that he was jumped backstage by Davis and Davis’ brother Keon Davis. Albright had defeated their other brother Kelvin Davis in the co-main event that night.

So what started as a painful cancellation turned all the more embarrassing for Davis who did not fight again for the remainder of the year.

But having been included in an action-packed Ring 6 card puts the undefeated Davis (13-0 with 1 no contest, 9 KOs) back into the mix with a clean reset. Davis, 26, is back to being his charismatic self during interviews and has been candid in the information he is offering.

“I changed my entire team,” Davis told the media late last year, as reported by Ring Magazine. “Everybody that I used to work with, I don’t work with anymore. Everything is different. Everybody got deleted. It’s a whole new team, whole new system.”

If successful in his super lightweight debut against Ortiz later this month, perhaps we could see Davis move on to challenge WBO welterweight world champion Devin Haney. The two boxers recently discussed just this on the social media platform X where Haney said he’s “looking at a few different options” and Davis responded “He’s waiting to see what I do with Jamaine.” To that, Haney replied: “U on the list … we can get it on.”

There has never been a question about Davis’ sweet science skills which can be scintillating.

Starting with the Ortiz fight, Davis can redeem himself as a boxing star and deliver fireworks for 2026.

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