Keyshawn Davis’ trainer, Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre, says previously unbeaten WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk (19-1, 9 KOs) was the equivalent of “trash” in his fourth-round knockout loss to his fighter last Friday night at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
Size Bully
BoMac states that he thought the much smaller and older 36-year-old Berinchyk would be “Better than that.” He doesn’t say why Keyshawn ballooned up so high in weight, looking like a middleweight inside the ring against the true lightweight Berinchyk.
That’s a third-rail topic that BoMac avoided, as Keyshawn should be fighting in the 160-lb division against fighters his size rather than regaining to campaign against much smaller guys in the 135-lb weight class. It’s just typical weight-bullying stuff that is polluting this era of boxing. Those types of fighters need to be eradicated from the face of the earth to make the sport fair.
It’s easy to look good when a fighter is three divisions bigger than their opponent. If Keyshawn were to fight a guy several divisions above his natural 160-lb size by going up against cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia, it would be the same result, if not worse. It would be fun to see Keyshawn face an opponent three weight classes above his size, wouldn’t it? If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander.
Jai would punch holes through Keyshawn, and it would likely be over in the first round if Top Rank allowed a mismatch like that to happen. They wouldn’t, of course. What we saw last night was the exact same thing. A fighter with a massive size advantage in Keyshawn, facing a smaller guy and taking advantage of the mismatch in frames.
“He was trash,” said Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre to Hans Themistode, giving his thoughts on Denys Berinchyk following his fourth-round knockout loss to Keyshawn Davis last Friday night at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York.
“He’s tough, but I thought he was going to be better than that. Keyshawn is going to go a long way. He’s got a great team around him.
“He [Keyshawn] did a great job. He listened, and he was patient. I don’t care who he goes into. He’s going to be well-prepared, just like he was tonight,” said BoMac to Fighthype when asked who should Keyshawn fight next.
The Gervonta Davis Dream
If BoMac thought Berinchyk was trash, he should have insisted that Keyshawn fight Andy Cruz, a guy who beat him four times. Why fight an older guy with no speed, power, or size when he could have fought Andy Cruz? I think we know the answer to that.
They don’t want Keyshawn to get beat again. This is all business, creating a hype job, who will swerve the dangerous opponents and face much smaller, weaker opposition while pushing hard for the cash-out fight against Gervonta Davis that will NEVER come. It’s a pathetic dream that Keyshawn has with no hope of ever happening. He needs to confront the truth about what his true options are at 135: There’s only Andy Cruz and it all ends with that fight. Keyshawn needs to move up to middleweight, where he belongs, and give it his best shot against IBF and WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly.
At the rate that Keyshawn is growing, he’s going to be too big soon to keep draining down to fight at 135, and he’ll be forced to move up to 160. When that happens, his career will sink into the ooze and he’ll be yesterday’s news. Before then, he’ll make his money fighting beatable guys at 135, 140, 147, 154, and 160.
“We study fighters. We bring all kinds of fighters in from all over the world to try and emulate what is going to be in front of us. Keyshawn said he wanted to go out there looking for a knockout, and I said, ‘That’s fine, as long as we go out there and do it the smart way.’”
Bomac ain’t have to say that to me about Berinchyk 😭 #BerinchykKeyshawn pic.twitter.com/kTZHhaBQMq
— Hans Themistode (@themistode) February 15, 2025
Last Updated on 02/15/2025
