Ortiz Is Not a Soft Touch
Jamaine is no easy out. This is definitely a risky comeback fight for Keyshawn, as he’s not fighting another plodding stiff. Ortiz is a serious test for him, and he has advantages in physical tools. Jamaine is faster, more mobile, and a superior combination puncher than Davis, and he’s fighting in his natural weight class.
No Room for a Struggle
It’s got to be just as dominant a performance as he showed in his last victory over Denys Berinchyk last February. What could prevent Keyshawn from looking like 24k gold is that Jamaine is not a plodding, slow, stationary type of fighter like the ones his promoters at Top Rank have been routinely feeding him since he turned pro in 2021.
Jamaine Ortiz’s fighting style is a blend of Shakur Stevenson and Andy Cruz. This is the wrong fighter for Keyshawn to be using to regain his momentum, because there’s a good chance he’ll lose. Even if he wins, he looks bad being gifted; that’s not going to help him regain his lost momentum.
The Year That Slipped Away
Keyshawn was talking earlier today, saying he’s only 26, and he still has a lot of time. He turns 27 in two months, so he’s getting up there in age. A year of his career has essentially evaporated because he failed to make weight for his fight last June against Edwin De Los Santos.
The fight was subsequently canceled. On the bright side, it might have been a good thing that Keyshawn was overweight because he could have lost. De los Santos is no joke. He’s one of the biggest punchers in the lightweight division.
We saw Nahir Albright stagger Keyshawn during their 2023 fight. If he could hurt him, just imagine what De Los Santos would have done. So, it wasnt altogether bad thing that Davis blew his fight against him.
“A year ago, Keyshawn Davis looked like one of the brightest stars in boxing. He beat Denys Berinchyk to become 135-pound,” said commentator Chris Mannix on his channel about Keyshawn Davis fighting Jamaine Ortiz on Turki Alalshikh’s ‘Ring 6’ event on January 31st in New York.
It’s hard to get excited about Keyshawn’s win over 37-year-old Berinchyk, because he was fighting an old guy who looked considerably smaller than him inside the ring. Top Rank did a good job of steering Keyshawn into a fight against Berinchyk because he was the weakest link.
“Can he get that momentum back in 2026? He was riding two of the biggest wins of his career,” said Mannix. “We know in boxing. All it takes is one fight, one great performance on one big stage to get that momentum back. I think Keyshawn is on the perfect stage to do that.”
If the Illusion Cracks
If Keyshawn loses or looks bad winning, Turki Alalshikh needs to rethink using him for future fights because it might not be worth it. A loss to Jamaine wouldn’t be the result of inactivity. It would be a signal that Keyshawn was never as good as people had thought.
The careful matchmaking that Top Rank camouflaged his defects did for him. Keyshawn is still the same fighter that Andy Cruz easily outboxed and outpunched in the 2020 Olympics. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s faced marginal opposition throughout his short career.
