The cameras caught Keyshawn’s reaction the moment the cards were read. He raised his hands in victory, as if it were a proxy one for himself. He’d lost to the Cuban talent Andy Cruz four times in amateur competition, including the 2020 Olympic finals.
Seeing Cruz look human in a professional setting may have offered a psychological release that Davis has been waiting for years. With a lowly 0-4 record against Cruz, Keyshawn was taking any victory he could get, even one that he didn’t earn. His reaction gives a glimpse of where he’s at. For me, it wouldn’t be a win.
Although Muratalla’s win doesn’t actually answer the questions that have followed Davis since Tokyo. It doesn’t prove Davis is the better pro. It also doesn’t erase the four losses he suffered in their amateur fights. If anything, it shows that Keyshawn is even below Muratalla.
Although the fight was close enough for it to have gone Cruz’s way, the judges gave it to Muratalla by the scores 114-114, 118-110, and 116-112. I had it for Cruz, but I was factoring in the jabs he was landing.
The judges may have focused more on aggression, who was pushing the fight more. That was Muratalla, 29, but it wasn’t effective aggression. He was coming forward, eating jabs, not landing much.
Watching Muratalla get his hand raised gave Davis something he could never earn himself in the ring. It didn’t settle the score.
Davis is currently preparing for his own return on January 31 at Madison Square Garden. He’s moving up to light welterweight to fight Jamaine Ortiz on the Ring 6 card on DAZN. Keyshawn had said recently that if Andy Cruz had beaten Muratalla to capture the IBF lightweight title, he could face him.
Now, that weight has been lifted off his shoulders with Cruz’s defeat. For them to fight now, Andy would have to move up to 140, and defeat one of the top contenders to rebuild. That’s unlikely to happen, because he’s small even for the lightweight division’s standards.
Going up to 140 to fight bigger, stronger fighters would require that Cruz bulk up. It’s possible if he were ambitious, but at 30, it’s not realistic. I don’t see it happening. Cruz is exactly where he needs to be at lightweight. The way he fought last Saturday, I would favor him to beat the big three in the division: Shakur Stevenson, Abdullah Mason, and Floyd Schofield.
