Keyshawn Davis was all set to put his WBO lightweight title on the line for the first time in front of his hometown crowd at Norfolk’s Scope Arena on June 7, against Edwin De Los Santos. But now? The fight’s been tossed out like last week’s leftovers—and all the evidence on the matter suggests that the 26-year-old champion is to blame for the fight’s collapse.

Despite the headlining fight between Davis and Santos in the grave, the show must go on. According to Top Rank, Abdullah Mason and Jeremia Nakathila are now set to headline the event on Saturday night. However, this begs the question: What went wrong, and why did the fight get canceled, and why did Davis lose his title without stepping into the ring? 

Keyshawn Davis fumbles the weight big time

The main issue in the matter is that Davis’ highly anticipated title defense against De Santos was canceled because the Norfolk native missed the weight by a huge margin. On Friday, June 6, during the official weigh-ins, Davis weighed in at 139.3 lbs, 4.3 lbs over the 135-pound limit for the lightweight fight. This resulted in the 26-year-old being stripped of his title by the WBO, leaving De Los Santos, who came in at 134.7, as the only fighter eligible to win the title. The two sides seem to have entered lengthy negotiations thereafter to keep the fight going. This included a proposal to change the weight limit by 10 pounds and add money to the pot, yet they could not come to an agreement. 

Edwin De Los Santos’ promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, expressed his frustration in an interview with ESPN, stating, “We renegotiated 10 pounds, plus money, but we concluded that Davis never tried to make weight,” Lewkowicz told ESPN. “He came dancing to the scale. I didn’t want what happened to [Devin] Haney and [Ryan] Garcia to happen. We canceled the fight.”

Lewkowicz continued, “The most important thing is Edwin. I hope he sets an example.” Meanwhile, when The Ring shared the update on Instagram, Claressa Shields caught wind of the matter and shared her two cents. “Wow 😮 wow 😮,” Shields wrote. But there’s more!

Is Edwin De Los Santos getting paid? 

Following the collapse of the fight, Top Rank head Bob Arum reacted to his fighter missing weight so blatantly and carelessly. “You can tell if a guy is trying to make weight and just can’t,’’ Arum told boxing journalist Dan Rafael. “You can see that he’s dehydrated. That wasn’t the case with Keyshawn. He never really tried to make 135. That’s my view of what happened.”

While Davis will have to go home empty-handed with 4.3 pounds heavier, De Los Santos appears to be walking home a lot happier. The Ring has confirmed that Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. will pay Edwin De Los Santos his full purse despite the cancellation of the fight, which sources say is approximately $400,000.

That being said, it appears Keyshawn Davis is either very reckless or uninterested in the fight against Edwin De Los Santos. Now, it would be interesting to see what his next step will be after losing his WBO title. What are your thoughts on the matter?