Keyshawn Davis Advances To Gold Medal Bout
After his win in the Lightweight semifinal at the Tokyo Olympics Friday afternoon against Hovhannes Bachkov, American Keyshawn Davis is one step closer to bringing home Gold for the United States.
The 22 year old Davis defeated the Armenian Bachkov by unanimous 5-0 decision to advance Sunday’s Gold medal bout. He is the first American Lightweight since 1992 to fight for Gold. That’s, when Oscar De La Hoya did it and was victorious in Barcelona.
Final score: 5-0 for @KeyshawnDavis8 🥊
He will box for gold on Sunday.
— USA Boxing (@USABoxing) August 6, 2021
Davis’s first round was a clear one, and he started off showing combinations while keeping an arm’s length against the pressing Bachkov. The second round showed a little more urgency from Bachkov, who was throwing more but was missing a lot more as well, leaving him open to well-timed counters and combinations from Davis. In the second round, Davis was docked a point for excessive holding. That deduction led to Davis being down on three of the five scorecards entering the final round.
The third and final round looked to be a close one, with Bachkov was able to land close, but the Virginia native Davis did so with right hands at the more extended range. Another round of well-placed shots and cleaner punches was all Davis needed to sweep it on all of the judge’s scorecards for the win.
Davis will now take on Cuba’s Andy Cruz, who dispatched Australia’s Harry Garside to advance in the other semifinal. Cruz is 3-0 against Davis, including a win in the Gold medal bout at the 2019 World Championships. So, Davis will be an underdog on Sunday.
Davis joins another American with a chance to win Gold in the Super Heavyweight division, Richard Torrez, who will battle Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan for the Gold medal Sunday afternoon in the concluding bout of the entire boxing tournament.
The Californian Torrez pulled an upset with a third-round TKO over Kazakhstan’s Kamshybek Kunkabayev in the semifinals on Wednesday. That assures Torrez of at least a Silver medal at Super Heavyweight, the first for the United States since Riddick Bowe in 1988. The last American Gold in that division is Tyrell Biggs in the 1984 L.A. Games.
The last U.S. Gold medal in men’s boxing is Andre Ward in the Light Heavyweight division of the 2004 Athens Games.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
