Speaker 1: It's my pleasure to welcome to our podcast this week
one of the best young fighters in boxing and the
up and coming lightweight contender, one of my past prospects
of the year. It's Kishan Davis. Kishan, We're here to
talk about your main event, your first main event against Gustavolemos.
It will take place on November eighth, I'll headline the
top rank of boxing on ESPN Plus card in your
hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. Welcome to the show. Thank you
very much for doing this.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, thank you.
Speaker 1: You bet all right. You know what I was thinking
about this. Since you turned professional, you've had a spotlight
on you pretty much the entire time, ever since You've
got to silver medal in the Olympics in those delayed
twenty twenty Tokyo Olympic Games, and so I don't think
that's anything new to you, and I've interviewed you before
you've seem pretty poised about those types of things. But
now you have your first main event. You've taken on
what I think most people would consider in Gustavo Lemos
by far your best opponent so far as a young professional,
and on top top of that, You're doing this headline
fight in your hometown, like your homecoming, your first ever
fight as a professional in your hometown. So I wonder
do you feel pressure from that or is it more
like just a level of like super excitement about it.
Speaker 3: Noah, just not even excited as confident. You can't get
too excited and excited and train your energy. I'm just confident,
staying calm, and I know how to fight. At the
end of the day, I'm not tripping off of who
in that ring with me. It could have been it
could have been anybody in that ring with me, you know,
So I know what I can do, no extra pressure
at all.
Speaker 1: So when you when you got notified that this fight
was going to take place in Norfolk, I was wondering,
was this something that you had aspired to for a while.
Had you been talking to maybe top rank or your management,
Hey can we do a fight at home? Or was
it something that they came to you and said, is
this something you'd like to do and to go home
to perform in front of the hometown.
Speaker 3: Well, me and my brother's been talking about this since
Will was amateur, since we was middle school, high school,
you know, so we were going to do this with
what company we landed on, I don't care whoever it was.
Thank god we land on Top Rank, one of the
best companies in the business. And the day the first day,
like after the Olympics, you know, did my little Olympic
run after the Olympics, had parades and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: The very first day we sat down with Todd Ring.
Speaker 3: It would be my brother, my big brother, Kelvin, my mother,
and we was talking about a homecoming come back to
the town. He was already talking about it before I
signed with Top Rank, having a meet and getting the
contract stuff situated.
Speaker 2: So we already had a vision for this and we
made it happen.
Speaker 1: So I guess it was just a matter of them
bringing you home when you were ready to be the
main event, as opposed to going to Norfolk when you're
going to be like in an eight round or something
on the undercard. Is that sort of the scenario.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure, they can't. They can't bring nobody
to my hometown. This is me main event. So we
already had that cover. Like when we come home, I'm
we be made event for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned like your older brother Kelvin, that's you know,
you're a lightweight. He's in the Junior Wealth wad Vision,
he's on the show. And now you guys have fought
on the same cards before, as you guys have gone
through the early part of your career. But now also
I think what probably adds to the special nature of
this is that your younger brother, uh Keon Davis, who
is also he's a welterweight. He's making his professional debut
on this card. So when you think about that, that
you're the headliner, but your two brothers who I know
you're close to, are also going to perform on the
same event, what does that mean to you? And what
does that just mean to like your mom, to the
whole family.
Speaker 2: His major Like, everybody from my family is coming.
Speaker 3: I got a family in New York, I got family
North Carolina, I got.
Speaker 2: A family in Virginia. I got a family everywhere. And
they all coming out, you know, and oh, we all excited.
Speaker 3: They all excited. They know it's gonna be a big event.
But we know at the end of the day, we
gotta still win, you know what I'm saying. So we
gotta make we gotta make the night happen, you know, saying,
So we all just stay focused and just trying to make.
Speaker 2: This event the best, one of the best events of
this year.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna say, as far as the event
aspect of it goes, it's already seems like it's a
success in talking to people at top rank ever since
that you know, this has going not just from today,
but I mean, men, just a couple of weeks ago,
they were already saying that the tickets were basically sold out,
that the town is really, you know, geared up for
this event. How much do you realize that that that
there's been a pent up demand I guess for you know,
either for the Davis Brothers to perform at home or
just for a big time boxing event in the first
place that you're able to bring in this number of fans.
It's not a world championship fight. You're not fighting some huge,
big name opponent that everybody has been dying to sty
or anything like that. So what is your mentality as
far as the reaction to your city to this event.
Speaker 2: Right now? You're right, man.
Speaker 3: My first appoint was Nicholas Watchers, and they don't know
Nicholas Washes the same way they don't know Gustavo Nemos.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But one thing I did want them to know and
remember is that fight. I couldn't put in a great
fight with Nicholas Watchers. I was gonna knock him out
in like four rounds. He's thirty eight years old, he's
an old man. But with Gustabo lemb Most, that's what
they're gonna actually remember, they're gonna that fight. And you
know what those they're gonna that's gonna make them come
to my next one. That's gonna make them come to
my very my own, my next one after that. You
know what I'm saying. I need to sell myself at
this point. I don't need to give him something just
something expected. I need to give him something unexpected. And
Gustavo is gonna bring a fight to me, and I'm
a fighter. I'm gonna bring a fight to him. Two
fighters with that same mentality, it's gonna do nothing but
make a great fight.
Speaker 1: Well, he asked you a little bit about Lemo, so
he's no joke. I mean I've seen him fight before.
He's twenty nine and one, he has nineteen knockouts. His
only loss was fighting at one hundred and forty pounds
in his last fight and when he when he got
lost a decision to Richard Hitchins in April. That was
a title elimination fight. So now he's coming back to
fight you in the lightweight division. So what are your
thoughts about him? I know you said you know he's
gonna come to make the fight, but what what kind
of things have you seen in him that you feel like,
you know, you need to take away from him to
be successful?
Speaker 2: Everything limos do I think better than him.
Speaker 3: I don't want to sound cocky or nothing like that,
but I know boxing, and I know myself, you know,
and I never lie to y'all.
Speaker 2: I always, you know, gave my predictions before the fight,
and nine times out of ten I was right, you know.
Speaker 3: And just with Gustavo, anything that he does, I do
better than him. If you want to fight on the inside,
you don't have a better inside game.
Speaker 2: I mean you think he punched hard, well, huh, I
punch hard to.
Speaker 3: Let's see if you take my punches, you know, Let's
see how fast you are.
Speaker 2: Let's see how good your jab is. Let's let's let's
see how you set your punches up. Let's see how good.
Speaker 3: Your angles are like everything that he do, I do
better than him. So in terms of like just this
fight right here, people want to say, oh, Gustavo is this,
Gustavo is dead.
Speaker 2: No, Keyshawn is this.
Speaker 3: Key Shawn is dead, and Gustavo is gonna have his
first his first step up of his career.
Speaker 1: You think, do you think you're more of a step
up than Richardson Hitchins, who's maybe a little bit more
advanced in terms of where he is in his pro
curer even though obviously you guys are both very talented fighters.
Speaker 3: I'm the best at one thirty fives period, and I'm
here to show the world. I'm not trying to say
I'm the best when I become world champions. I'm not
trying to say I'm the best when I become the
face of boxing. I'm saying I'm the best right now
and I'm going to continue to show that.
Speaker 1: So with the aspect of this fight, the big part
of it being that you're fighting in Norfolk, I wonder
and I've covered plenty of fighters that have gone home.
Some embrace it and love it and can't get enough
of it. Other guys, the distractions just overcome them. And
it's never it's sometimes a bad night. How do you
go about avoiding the inevitable distractions and the pull on
your time and mentality of you know, being the focus
of everything at home? There's always kind of people coming
all over the place in terms of like tickets and
interviews even more than normal that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you a quick little story man, about
my love, my love, my trials and true relations that
I had before I even got on the Olympic team.
Speaker 2: God put me to a great test.
Speaker 3: He took me to the to the mental home basically,
and I was just all lived to talk about this,
but he took me to the mental home.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: In the mental home, I was, I was, I was
talking to God. I said, God, I know you, I
know you. I know you not kicking me while I'm down,
but I know you breaking me down right now before
you build me up. And I know and I know
you know. I got the confidence. I know you know
I got the will, the ability to win. But you're
just trying to get my mental right in my In
the in the mental home.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking this. I haven't been through I've don't been
through that right there.
Speaker 3: The mental health and stuff, I done, took the medication
every day. I done hard myself. I've done been through
all of that. So in terms of distractions and people.
Speaker 2: Talking about tickets and people talking about interviews, that's nothing.
That's nothing. I already been through the worst in terms
of being.
Speaker 3: Mentally prepared for something. God already put me to the worst.
So everything I'm going through right now is.
Speaker 2: The reasons why I am who I am, the reasons.
Speaker 3: Why that last fight I had a straight face on
my face the entire time.
Speaker 2: That fight was the most rugged fight at the ninth
It was rugged, it was dirty.
Speaker 3: It hit me below the belt. I'm still playing in
the ring. I'm still having fun. So God already put
me to the worst to get ready to prepare my mental.
Speaker 2: For what's to come.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the Miguel Mdweno fight, your last bout, Yes, sure, okay.
In terms of Norfolk, I mean there hasn't been big
boxing events there since. You got to go back to
like the you know, the late I guess the mid
eighties into the early nineties, when you know the legendary,
late great Hall of Famer Paranel Whitaker, who's from Norfolk.
One of the greatest fighters of all time, former champion
and multiple divisions undisputed lightweight champion, the same weight class
that I assumed that you would like to be an
undisputed champion in someday. He's the last guy that really
filled up the scope for boxing. I mean, that's thirty
years ago. Probably. What does it mean to you to
follow in the footsteps of somebody that you said in
the announcement of this fight was your idol?
Speaker 2: No, it definitely was.
Speaker 1: He's smiling another way when I brought up Whittaker's name, Yeah, it.
Speaker 3: Definitely was thirty years ago because I got stories about
Prenell Man then trained me before you know Toby two
two of my greatest attributes that I still use to
this day. When I was he told me this when
I was like sixteen years old. He said, these are
two greatest attributes. Don't ever lose.
Speaker 2: That, you know. So I just kept that with me.
But outside of you know, just.
Speaker 1: Him, what was the attributes? You got to tell you.
Speaker 2: What I'm not telling you.
Speaker 3: I would tell you face to face, but I'm not
telling you up here, you know, but just selling out
the scope like how he did. Man for our first
dB three, first main event. Man, it's a blessing. It's
God Like. This is written when we was born. God
already written out a plan for us. Like, seriously, I
cannot stress this enough. This is what God wanted to happen, Like,
this is our first main event. Who expects to sell
out anything for the first main event.
Speaker 2: We could have took it to a theater.
Speaker 3: They probably won't think we're gonna sell ot the theater.
This is an arena with ten thousand seats in it.
We already sold nine thousand seats.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's going to be no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I think so for sure. Everybody thinks.
Speaker 1: So when you talk about Whitaker, I mean, obviously he
got to know him after he was retired, But those
days of him fighting those fights in nor fucking bringing
in those crowds, and a lot of those fights were
on national television. That was before you were born. I
remember that because I remember watching them. I'm a lot
older than you were. But how did you, uh, like,
have you gone back and watched those fights and like
and been a fan of Whittaker, not just because you
knew him, but just as a boxer in the same
way class that you hope to dominate. Also like the
way he did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely went back and watched the fights. Todd
RNK sent me some fights of how he walked out
and just a lot of different things, so I can
get ideas from different things and how sweet Pages had
to scope with the what the energy was like in
the scope, so they can give me a perspective of
how I'm gonna have it, so I won't be walking
into something like wow, I didn't expect it, you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying. So definitely we got to watch some of.
Speaker 3: His fights and Todd RNK sent me some of his
fights and how he had to scope. So definitely inspired me.
And I'm like, damn, man, if I can do it
like that, then that would be great. But we're trying
to go for better, you know what I'm saying, Always
trying to go for better, So we go see how
it turns out for sure.
Speaker 1: So it was around this time last year you had
gotten the victory against the heir Albright. It was a
competitive fight, but you know, I see you know, you
know what I'm gonna ask you about. It became a
no contest. You had a tested positive for marijuana, which
is not looked at these days as a negativity from
a lot of people, but it is still against the
rules of most boxing commissions as far as I'm aware.
And I remember when you came back from that, you
spoke to uh I think it was on one of
the ESPN shows about you know, you've given up smoking marijuana.
You feel like it's gonna make you better. Since that
situation you did your suspension, You've came back and you
looked really good. You had a great performance against Jose Pedraza,
which was a step up opponent at that time, a
former two division world champ. You just mentioned about how
you you know, you got in there and took care
of Miguel Maduena in a tough, rugged fight. So I'm wondering,
assuming you still are not smoking weed, how much has
that that decision that you made improved you know, your
life and your performance as a as a as a
professional athlete.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 3: Man, I gave I gave it to God, man, And
I'm not gonna sit hearing and lie to y'all and
say I didn't you know, slip up and get back
to it. But I'm clean for sure. I'm still clean.
God still working on me. And like I said, I
never lied to y'all. Still not gonna love to y'all,
you know. And I feel like you know, once I
did once I once, I gave it up and just
kept moving forward with it and just having hiccups in between, honestly.
Speaker 2: Just getting just getting getting, getting back to praying, getting
back to God.
Speaker 3: And he God is the only person that can in addictions. Honestly,
you can't do it without him. So just keeping him
close to me, honestly in my career period, He's gonna
take me to the magnitudes.
Speaker 2: That I never expected, honestly.
Speaker 3: And since this camp, you know, I've been going to
church every Sunday. You know, I had my son within
this camp, and since he been born, he didn't miss
a church in Sunday.
Speaker 2: And I've just been.
Speaker 3: Really just wrapping my life around God, honestly. And I
know you asked about the weed, but it's bigger than we.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. It's about God, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And since i've been since, I've been wrapping my life
around Him and just living in the fire with him.
He been expanding me. Man, he may expanding me. He
may expand my vocabulary to spending my heart. He've been
making me think more before I react, And I'm just
trying to, you know, just continue to be alongside him,
just keep reaching out to him, so I can just
preach my testimony about me going to the mental home, use.
Speaker 2: My testimony about me with the marijuana.
Speaker 3: And stuff like that, so people could get inspired and
just come to him.
Speaker 1: And just like I did, I didn't realize that you
had a child during the camp. How old is your son?
Speaker 2: Though, he's gonna be two months in November.
Speaker 1: First, Okay, so when the camp, when when the fight's over,
I guess then you can relax and spend some good
time with him. I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you feel me? Yeah for sure, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of post fight, if you win and assuming
you do take care of your business, you're gonna be
twelve and zero. I wonder what do you see in
store for yourself for twenty twenty five? You know, I
know you're in a hurry to get to the big
time fights, So the title fights. You already say you're
the best lightweight in the world. It's an excellent division.
Do you think it's a title eliminator in the near future,
can it get can it be a world title shot?
It may be a little tough getting the title fight
just because of the guys that hold the belts at
the present time. What is your sort of outlook on that,
you know down the road.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm ranked number three and three sanctions and bodies.
Speaker 3: That's you know, that's one step and then all the
guy Barranchick that's from Ukraine.
Speaker 2: We DM, we DM.
Speaker 3: All the time, and we talk about how it could
make the fight happen, you know, next year.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So I'm definitely not far away from becoming the world champion.
Like at the end of the day, just think about
the landscape in one thirty five division.
Speaker 2: Who else deserve a shot for a title?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not saying you don't deserve a shot.
I'm just thinking, like, no.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that neither.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm just saying, like, just think about it,
like I'm next in line for this shot with WBC.
Well that's your core WBO I be or WBA, Like,
I'm next in line, man, people want to see me fight.
I sell, I sell in Arenas. You know what I'm saying,
Like I'm next in line. You know what I'm saying,
So expect me to become a world champion twenty twenty
five for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned Brentchick. That was the guy that sort
of seemed to stick out like the sore thumb. I mean,
you're not fighting Shakurt obviously, he's your you know, you
guys are close. He's with a different promoter now. Anyway,
Barentchik is there. Lomachenko, A lot of people think he
may retire. If he does that, Doult would become vicant.
I haven't looked to see your exact position in the
idea of rankings, but I guess that might be a possibility.
You're third, okay, and uh and Tank Davis, I mean
he's off doing his thing. Don't think he's looking at
because he's looking for the bigger fights. He does what
he wants to do in terms of his pay per views.
But you do feel like though the world time, I mean,
you can't, you.
Speaker 3: Can't really put that narrative out there like that. We
all respect Tank and what he did with the sport.
He brought a lot more eyes to.
Speaker 2: The sport, but I'm not doing this. It's not strict fights.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like it's like, I don't know. I know,
he tried to fight limy Chenko, you know what I'm saying.
He tried to fight lemon Chenko. Lemonchenko saying, you know
what I'm saying. But it's still like you said, stacked
man and him going to fight a one to thirty
pounder that he've been grow that he grew up with,
that we just see spar and all that extra shit.
It was just like, Okay, he doing what you want
to do, but you're looking for the biggest fights.
Speaker 1: My comment about Gervanta Davis was not negative. It was
a matter of the fact that he is in a
position where he's able. Good for him to to not
have to fight you and still be able to put
on big events and still be able to make a
huge amount of money. Sure, I was trying to figure
out where where Keishan Davis is going to get that
title opportunity from him or no, no from you mentioned
like Barent Chick and some of the other guys.
Speaker 3: Oh, just period twenty twenty five for sure. I think
twenty twenty five for sure. Like I'm getting the belt, Guaran,
I will say guarantee out there when a lot of
y'all with shit nine times out to become a world champions.
Speaker 1: Next year, well it'll be uh, it'll be definitely fun
and interesting to watch. First, obviously, you got to take
care of your business with Gustavo Remos on the upcoming
fight nine November eighth. I wish you the best of
look in that fantation. I really appreciate your time to do.
Speaker 2: This today, Yes, sir, thank you. Matt m hm