Keyshawn Davis’ rout caps 3-0 start for U.S. men’s boxing in Tokyo

Keyshawn Davis, a 3-0 professional extensively hailed as Workforce USA’s finest hope to finish the gold-medal boxing drought for the boys, superior to the Spherical of 16 with a 5-0 victory over the Netherland’s Enrico Lacruz on Saturday night in Tokyo.

Davis, 22, received all three rounds on all 5 playing cards. He is seeking to turn out to be the primary male boxer to win gold for Workforce USA since Andre Ward in 2004. (Ward is at present an ESPN boxing analyst.)

Preventing out of Norfolk, Virginia, Davis received over the judges with a pointy jab and clean mixtures that he was capable of ship earlier than evading incoming pictures.

“These guys cannot beat me,” Davis informed ESPN final week. “I am one of the best within the match. … If I do not wanna get hit, you are not going to hit me.”

Davis’ light-weight triumph capped a 3-0 begin for the American males, a staff seeking to reclaim its dominance on the worldwide stage. America holds the all-time lead for boxing gold medals at 50 (the game was launched on the 1904 Olympic Video games in St. Louis). Workforce USA grabbed six gold medals on the 1984 Video games in Los Angeles.

In recent times, Workforce USA has floundered, the lone gold medals coming from Claressa Shields, who starred at each the 2012 and 2016 Video games (ladies’s boxing joined the Olympics in 2012.)

Duke Ragan, a 4-0 professional from Cincinnati, kicked off in-ring festivities Friday for the American males with a 3-2 victory over France’s Samuel Kistohurry at featherweight. Earlier Saturday, Delante “Tiger” Johnson outpointed Argentina’s Brian Arregui, 3-2, in a welterweight match.

The third professional on Workforce USA, Troy Isley, has his Spherical-of-32 match Monday vs. Belarus’ Vitali Bandarenka at middleweight. Isley, a 2-0 professional from Washington, D.C., is promoted by Prime Rank together with Ragan. USA Boxing hasn’t allowed execs to compete previously, however the cancellation of the Americas Olympic Boxing Qualifying Occasion, scheduled to happen in Might in Buenos Aires, opened the door for the inclusion of the professionals. The Olympic qualifier was cancelled attributable to COVID-19 issues.

All three males have been truly ready to go to Tokyo final summer season earlier than the pandemic postponed the Video games. With the Olympics delayed one yr, the trio determined to show professional reasonably than wait. Seems they have been capable of combat in each the paid and unpaid ranks in any case.

It wasn’t a flawless begin for Workforce USA, although. American Yasiel Ramirez misplaced 5-0 to Croatia’s Nikolina Cacic on Friday in a feminine featherweight combat.