Keyshawn Davis and Jose Pedraza have officially reached an agreement for a lightweight bout scheduled to take place on December 9th in Pembroke Pines, Florida, as confirmed by Mike Coppinger of ESPN.
This plays to the quote Davis gave recently after his most recent win over Nahir "Woo" Albright on October 14th, in Texas in which after the fight he called for a Pedraza fight.
“I wouldn’t say that [about being his toughest fight to date], but this fight today gave me some experience,” said Keyshawn Davis last Saturday night to ESPN after his win. "If Pedraza is willing to take this fight with me, let’s do it on December 9th. I was just doing what I wanted to do and having fun."
The bout speaks to the confidence that Top Rank has in the immensely talented Davis, who is an Olympic silver medalist, Nahir Albright had recently beaten Karlos Balderas, yet Davis was tentatively penned in to fight on December 9th despite having a tough opponent. The bout that will headline this card will be a featherweight title clash between WBO titleholder Robeisy Ramirez and Rafael Espinoza, though it has yet to be formally announced.
Davis, who is 24 years old, is entering this contest from a hard-fought closely contested majority-decision triumph over Nahir Albright earlier this month. The upcoming matchup shows that Davis is looking for a world title shot as Pedraza has only lost to the best and is a two-division world champion.
Pedraza is coming off a challenging stretch, having suffered three consecutive losses in the junior welterweight division seems to be moving back down to the lightweight division where he held a world title. Pedraza had a draw with Richard Commey, with losses to Jose Ramirez and Arnold Barboza occurring between that result. Pedraza was never blown out but also found himself in fights in which he didn't have a path to victory. Pedraza's career as of now is more notable for who he lost to. Gervonta Davis stopped him in 2017 to win the super featherweight world title, and Vasiliy Lomachenko defeated him to win the lightweight world title
Notably, Pedraza, hailing from Puerto Rico, last competed in the 135-pound division in May 2019. As a slick southpaw, he previously held titles at both 130 and 135 pounds. It's worth mentioning that his championship losses occurred against some of the sport's most elite competitors, with Gervonta Davis delivering a TKO to strip him of his IBF super featherweight world title in 2017, and Vasiliy Lomachenko defeated him to win the WBO lightweight world title
Davis is under the expert guidance both in terms of management and training of Brian 'BoMac' McIntyre, who also manages and trains Terence Crawford, largely considered to be the best boxer in the world currently.
This bout seems similar to the advancement of Shakur Stevenson's early career when Stevenson fought Christopher "Pitufo" Diaz in his eleventh pro fight. This will be Keyshawn Davis' eleventh fight.
