Keyshawn Davis secured a dominant win against Denys Berinchyk to claim the world title on February 14 at The Theater at MSG in New York. Battling it out in the main event, the native of Norfolk, VA defeated his opponent from Ukraine by knockout, twice sending him to the canvas along the way.
Davis scored the first knockdown in the third round with a body shot. The second knockdown came in the following round, also from a left hand to the body. Berinchyk didn’t beat the count, and referee Harvey Dock waved the fight off. The official time was 1:45 into the fourth round.
With the victory, Keyshawn Davis became the new WBO lightweight champion, claiming the world title on his first attempt. The 25-year-old improved to 13-0, 9 KOs, and remained undefeated.
Denys Berinchyk dropped to 19-1, 9 KOs, and lost the belt. The 36-year-old didn’t succeed in his first championship defense.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Davis said. “Right before I knocked him out, I was hearing the crowd saying ‘Norfolk, Norfolk’, I was like ‘Oh no, I got to knock him out now’. Boom!”
When asked about looking over at Terrence Crawford, Davis said, “He told me, he was like ‘Man, I told you it was going to be a body shot, man.’ He kept telling me like double my shots up, and when I did, land to the body, it was two shots, and the second one put him down.”
“I never really had problems with awkward fighters. The only thing that was kind of giving me a little trouble was how he kept jumping in and out, jumping in and out. And he was a little faster than I expected. But as the rounds went on and on, I just got more comfortable in there; in the fourth round did it to him.”
“Anybody that’s got the balls to step in the ring to fight me – tell them come on,” Davis said when asked who he wanted to face next. “Anybody. It’s two 135 lbs division champions that I would love to fight, you know. But if they got the guts to step in the ring with the businessman, tell them send me a contract or I send in one.”
Ukraine’s Vasiliy Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) currently holds the IBF title at 135 lbs. Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) of Baltimore, MD is a champion in the WBA, and Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) of Newark, NJ in the WBC.