Top Rank boss, Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, has been around the sport for decades, since the mid-1960s, and as such, Arum knows talent when he sees it; he knows special talent when he sees it. And, in speaking with The Ring, Arum revealed just how highly he rates the talent and the skill belonging to current WBO lightweight champ Keyshawn Davis.
Arum said that Davis, who is currently unbeaten at 13-0(9), is “this generation’s Sugar Ray Leonard.” Now, it absolutely goes without saying that this is immensely high praise, and it’s likely some fans will feel Arum has gone overboard here. After just over a dozen fights at the pro level, it’s basically all but impossible for anyone to state with any certainty how good, or how great, Davis is, or is going to go on and become.
Next up for Davis will be his first WBO title defence, against Edwin De Los Santos, the fight set for June 7 in Davis’ hometown of Norfolk. Arum said to The Ring that this is a really good fight. And then Bob made the Sugar Ray comparison.
“I think it’s a really good fight,” Arum said of Davis-De Los Santos. “This kid’s gonna keep getting tested. But, you know, in my estimation, Keyshawn Davis is this generation’s Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s that good. And he fights the same type of style. In other words, he’s very, very quick, has very good defense, but also is an offensive fighter. You know, I’ve always been very high on Keyshawn. And this is another test for him.”
Davis will likely enter the ring against the 16-2(14) De Los Santos as a pretty big underdog. But for now, this type of fight is okay for “The Businessman,” as Davis is known – and to be fair, some 135-pounders seem to want nothing to do with Davis. But the big fights, the really big tests, must come soon enough. And if Davis can beat the likes of Shakur Stevenson (who Davis has said he would not like to fight as the are friends, but as we know, money talks in this game), Gervonta Davis, Lamont Roach, etc, then he may well be on his way to fulfilling Arum’s, shall we say, prophecy. And another man Davis needs to beat is his amateur nemesis, Andy Cruz, who beat him four times in the unpaid ranks.
Davis has plenty of time to do plenty of things at age 26, and again, maybe Arum is right with his lofty comparison to the second Sugar Ray.