Keyshawn Davis, Oleksandr Usyk, & Dmitry Bivol Recaps
Written by Greg on 6/3/26
We had some big names return to the ring over the last month. Let’s recap the action.
Saturday Night 5/16/26 in Norfolk, Virginia on DAZN
Keyshawn Davis Cruises to a Win Over Albright
What Happened:
This was not a fight that many of us wanted to see even though the story lines were there. Keyshawn Davis (15-0) beat Nahir Albright (17-3-1) back in October 2023, only to have that win vacated due to getting popped for smoking the Mary Jane. Fast forward to 2025, Albright beats Keyshawn’s brother Kelvin Davis on the undercard of what was meant to be Keyshawn’s first defense of his title. Things went south quickly for Keyshawn that weekend. He came in way overweight and his fight was cancelled in his hometown. After Albright beat Kelvin in the ring, Keyshawn and his brothers jumped Albright in his locker room and ended up getting kicked out of the arena.
Okay, so now we know why we got this fight. Albright is an old school, hard nosed, tough fighter but he is not at the world class level. Keyshawn looked sharp as he cruised to an easy win over Albright. The two issues around this fight was when Keyshawn literally picked up Albright and WWE powerbombed him to the canvas. Davis was deducted 2 points for the move but it points more to a pattern of lack of focus and professionalism. The second issue is a minor one but will become more of an issue as Keyshawn takes on better competition. Keyshawn had no urgency to get Albright out of there. He was happy to sit back and point himself to a victory. There is nothing wrong with that BUT Keyshawn is an elite talent. We know he can do better.
Saturday Evening 5/23/26 at The Pyraminds in Giza, Egypt on DAZN PPV
Oleksandr Usyk Survives Scare Against Rico Verhoeven
What Happened:
The two time Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the world fought some Dutch kickboxer? This recap should be one or two sentences right? Yikes.
First off Rico Verehoeven (1-1) is not simply a kickboxer. He is the greatest heavyweight kickboxer of all time. He hasn’t lost a kickboxing fight in over ten years. He is an elite combat sports athlete… but yea no one outside of kickboxing had ever heard of him or seen anything from him.
By now you have seen the clips and heard the talking heads talk about this fight. “Oleksandr Usyk (25-0) is saved by the rigged boxing scene to rob Rico Verehoeven of the biggest win in sporting history!”. There is no doubt that Rico pulled off one of the greatest surprise showings in boxing history. He pushed the heavyweight champ of the world further and harder than almost anyone else at the heavyweight has been able to do (Derek Chisora would like a word) but did Rico get robbed?
I rewatched the fight without the commentary on and scored the fight. Rico’s tactic of constantly engaging Usyk with volume, fighting like the smaller man on the outside while bullying and using his size on the inside was a nearly perfect blueprint. The problem for Rico was that he has never gone 12 rounds of championship boxing. He ran out of gas which opened the door for Usyk.
Going into that pivotal 11th round I had Rico up 2 rounds (96-94) over Usyk. I have to be honest and say it was not an impressive performance by either man. Rico kept Usyk occupied and busy but almost landed nothing of consequence. On the other side Usyk came in at his heaviest weight, we didn’t see his trademark pendulum stepping. He looked old, confused and ready for the retirement home. But there is one thing you can never deny Usyk. He is a winner. Somehow, someway, he is always able to dig deep and do just enough to get the W.
That is what we saw. I don’t know if Rico was that good, Usyk was that old and unprepared or if the truth was somewhere in the middle but none of that mattered in the 11th scoring a TKO at the end of the round. No it wasn’t a robbery. Rico got knocked down BAD by an uppercut. He was wobbly on his legs as his team bought him an extra 30 seconds to recover. But Usyk did the thing we yell at all fighters to do. When you have your opponent hurt you need to throw everything at him to force the ref to stop the fight. Rico threw 1 half-hearted punch to Usyk’s flurry of 13-14 punches. The ref made the right call to step in and protect the fighters health.
Saturday Afternoon 5/30/26 in Russia on DAZN
Dmitry Bivol Shows He is Still in Tip-Top Shape at Light Heavyweight
What Happened:
The biggest question mark with Dmitry Bivol (25-1) coming into this fight was about how he would look after having serious back surgery and 15 months out of the ring. Well, I can report it was a classic Bivol performance. He knocked down Germany’s Michael Eifert (13-2) in the 1st minute of the 1st round and then put it on cruise control to an easy win.
The rumor has it that we will get the Bivol-Beterbiev next and it will be in Mother Russia.