NEW YORK – Keyshawn Davis delivered the type of performance Saturday night that demonstrated why Bob Arum signed him to a promotional contract last month.
The 22-year-old Davis dropped Jose Zaragoza twice in the second round on his way to a technical-knockout victory on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Richard Commey undercard at Madison Square Garden. Norfolk’s Davis (4-0, 3 KOs), a lightweight prospect who won a silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in August, stopped Zaragoza with nine seconds to go in the second round.
Zaragoza (8-4-1, 2 KOs), of Sedalia, Missouri, lost by knockout for the first time in 13 professional fights.
Zaragoza drilled Davis with a right hand early in the second round. Davis cracked Zaragoza with a right uppercut 1:10 into the second round, though, and continued to catch Zaragoza with hard head and body shots later in the second round.
With about 50 seconds to go in the second round, Davis staggered Zaragoza with a right uppercut. Zaragoza bent over and tried to hold Davis, but he eventually went down with 49 seconds on the clock in the second round once Davis connected with another shorter right uppercut.
A game Zaragoza got up and tried to fight out of that trouble. Davis delivered a perfectly placed left hook to Zaragoza’s body, however, that ended their fight.
Davis’ right hand to the side of Zaragoza’s head knocked him off balance with just over 1:50 to go in the first round. Zaragoza tried to work inside during the first round, but Davis defended himself well and blasted him with a left hook when there was just under a minute remaining in it.
Davis landed several more power punches before the first round ended and stared at Zaragoza when the bell sounded to end it.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.