Keyshawn Davis suggested that three-lane lightweight heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev cheated to gain power ahead of his fight with Dmitry Bivol. Lightweight fighter Keyshawn says IBF, WBC and WBO 175-pound champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KO) is “Unnaturally forceful” and that if he “comes naturally” he will lose the fight against WBA champion Bivol (23-0, 12 KO) on Saturday evening in Riyad.

(Photo: Leigh Dawney Promotions/Queensberry)

Fans are criticizing Keyshawn for suggesting that two-time Olympian Beterbiev is a cheater because he has never tested positive for PEDs in his 11-year professional career and has always hit well since his amateur days in Russia.

He is a guy endowed with enormous power and able to deliver miniature punches with great force. Most fighters need to charge up to generate power, but Beterbiev doesn’t have to.

“I won’t say it because it will make headlines, but I will always stick with the boxer. I will definitely choose Bivol,” said Keyshawn Davis Fightchoosing Dmitry Bivol to beat Artur Beterbiev on Saturday night in Riyad.

“Beterbiev, he’s so unnaturally forceful,” Keyshawn said, widening his eyes to indicate that something was wrong with Beterbiev. “It’s demanding to beat unnatural shit, if you know what I’m saying. If it comes naturally, Bivol should win. But if he comes unnaturally forceful, it will be hard to defeat something like that.

If Bivol loses, it won’t be because of something unnatural on Beterbiev’s part. He is a better fighter than Bivol, who has shown problems with his chin in the past against weaker fighters.

If Keyshawn had the power that Beterbiev had, he would be a more popular lightweight fighter and wouldn’t be fighting the weaker fighters that Top Rank feeds him. He hasn’t looked good in two of his last three fights against Miguel Madueno and Nahir Albright.

It’s clear from watching these fights that Keyshawn isn’t going anywhere and Top Rank wasted their time signing him after his loss to Cuban Andy Cruz at the 2020 Olympics. They should have signed Cruz and not Keyshawn. It was a mistake on their part.

Jermall Charlo fought his way back home to end his final break from the ring.

The Ring has confirmed that the former two-division champion will return to the ring on December 14. Charlo (33-0, 22 knockouts) will appear on Gervonta “Tank” Davis-Lamont Roach PBC’s Prime Pay-Per-View event at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

At the time of publication, the adversary had not yet been identified. However, The Ring learned that the main candidate is Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna (38-5-1, 17 KO). Such a fight would take place at the full super middleweight limit.

PBC creator Al Haymon was trying to replace the injured Nico Collins on his NFL Fantasy Football team, but was unable to comment on the situation.

Houston’s Charlo will be out of the ring for just over a year before fight night. He ended a 29-month absence from the ring on November 25 last year in Las Vegas with a ten-round victory over Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs). Charlo did not make the set weight for the fight, reaching a career-high 166.4 pounds.

This will mark his second fight in a row in the super middleweight division. Charlo already held the IBF junior middleweight and WBC middleweight titles.

Previous rumors claimed that Charlo would potentially face fellow former two-division titleholder Demetrius Andrade. However, The Ring confirmed that these were false hopes and that such a match was never included in the budget for the Davis-Roach undercard.

Charlo’s last home fight came in June 2021, when he scored over Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KO). The fight also took place at the Toyota Center and was the fourth and final defense of his WBC middleweight title.

Personal problems forced a longer break from the ring. Along with this, plans to defend the title against Maciej Sulecki in June 2022 in this place were canceled.

Charlo was ultimately cleared from the WBC 160-pound fight due to his inability to defend against interim champion and mandatory challenger Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KO). Charlo has been given the title of “Hi-time Champion”, although he is not expected to return to middleweight.

If this fight takes place, it will be LaManna’s third career fight above 160 pounds.

The 32-year-old from southern Modern Jersey has won eight straight since a knockout loss to Erislandy Lara in May 2021. The fight will feature a secondary version of the WBA middleweight title. Since then, Lara has landed a full slate of titles, and LaManna is planning a comeback.

In his last appearance, LaManna scored a second-round knockout of normally fit Juan Carlos Abreu (26-8-1, 24 KOs). Their clash took place on June 8 in LaManna’s home region of Atlantic City.

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Adam Azim has been making headlines since bursting onto the British boxing scene four years ago.

What initially caught attention was Azim’s incredible hand speed. However, his influence caused him to quickly engage in a fight for the victory with his younger welterweight rival Dalton Smith.

Each fighter benefits greatly from having a talented, high-profile rival, but despite the best efforts of the governing bodies, a match between the two is still a long way off and it has begun to feel like the constant chatter and maneuvering is overshadowing Azim’s development.

Ankle and wrist injuries have kept Azim (11-0, 8 KO) out of the ring since he defended his European title against Enock Poulsen in February. As frustrating as it was to force the newborn player to the side, the setbacks may have been his body’s way of telling him – and everyone around him – to snail-paced down.

In his absence, Azim relinquished the European title and Smith vacated the British belt after stopping the still unsafe Jose Zepeda to legitimize himself as a world title challenger. The two are further apart than they have been in a while.

Azim seems to have benefited from this break. Instead of constantly working on a specific opponent, he was able to work on his all-around game and instead of defending his career path, he focused solely on self-improvement.

On October 19, Azim returns to action in a reasonable and meaningful domestic fight against recent world title challenger Ohara Davies.

The conversation about Smith will inevitably heat up again, but over the next few weeks the talented Azim will be at the center of his own story again.

“My attitude towards this fight is completely different. I’ve been working really strenuous in the gym, improving every day and working extremely strenuous,” Azim told BoxingScene. “The good thing about being in the gym all the time is that you take into account what you need to do in the ring and keep working on it. That’s why I’m working on my footwork and internal fight, which is one of the things I want to work on.

“As a complete package – as a professional player – it’s good to have a good inside game, but also an outside game.”

It seemed like barely a month had passed without Azim scoring such a spectacular early goal that provides manna from heaven for social media teams and fuel for the hype machine.

In November 2022, Azim made his sixth straight stoppage quickly, defeating the tough Rylan Charlton over two rounds, and then the search began for opponents who could weather the early storm and give him quality innings.

The matchmakers certainly did their job.

Santos Reyes got up from the floor and went 10 rounds, just like Adam Faniian. Franck Petitjean made it to the 10th round of a free European title fight before ultimately being overwhelmed, while a shoulder injury forced Enock Poulsen to withdraw after five rounds earlier this year.

The rounds were invaluable. They gave Azim confidence in the gas tank, but also taught him which elements of his style would work at a championship level and which elements needed more work.

“You know what?” Azim said. “After the Rylan Charlton fight, I fought Santos Reyes and when I dropped him, I thought, ‘Yes, I’ve got him again.’ But there is a point where these people have strenuous heads, good chins and there is a way where you have to overcome it in a mature way. In my case, I was just throwing punches, trying to get him out, not thinking about it.

“If I fought him again, the story would be different because now I know how to beat him, you know? If I had stayed inside with him then, I would have gotten him out because I just kept it ticking for so long. It’s those three and four punches, not just one or two, where there are shots that they can’t see.

“Even with the Aram Fanian fight, it was a unsafe fight for me at the beginning. He fought 24 fights and lost only one during that time, so he was a good, advancing opponent for me.

“Now the fights last longer, I can think about how to eliminate them and break them – but that comes with maturity. I was 19, 20 years venerable then. Now I’m 22, so I’m getting older and of course gaining masculine strength, which is also good to have.

“I work really strenuous so I know what to do in the ring.