Abdullah Mason Vs. Yohan Vasquez: A Young Star On The Keyshawn Davis Undercard
Abdullah Mason (15-0, 13 KOs) will be fighting Yohan Vasquez (26-5, 21 KOs) on November 8th in an eight-round fight on the undercard of Keyshawn Davis vs. Gustavo Lemos at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia. The event will be shown live on ESPN+.
Mason’s presence on the card puts pressure on Keyshawn
Putting Mason on this card will put pressure on lightweight contender Keyshawn to raise his game because he looks worse with each Top Rank fight he’s given. Having Mason on this card will highlight the mistake Top Rank made by wasting their money signing Keyshawn outside of the 2020 Olympics.
In this event, Top Rank chose not to bury Mason’s 20-year-old fight as they have done in the past. Mason has been main eventing on recent cards and has been a saving grace, especially in Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan headliner last July. Mason looked good on that card, destroying Luis Lebron in three rounds.
Some fans on social media said that Mason should be the one to fight Keyshawn (11-0, 7 KOs) in the title rather than the recently beaten Lemos (29-1, 19 KOs), who lost his last fight in April and did not win. I mean fighting at 135. It seems pretty obvious why Top Rank chose the 140-pounder for Keyshawn.
If Lemos makes weight, Keyshawn will have the opportunity he needs to win and he will look good to the casual fans. Ideally, Top Rank should show fans that Keyshawn is the real deal by accepting promoter Eddie Hearn’s offer to set up a fight between Keyshawn and 2020 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz, who beat Davis four times in the novices.
World Title Visible
The plan is for Mason, 5’9″, to continue fighting before challenging for the world title in 2025 against one of the world’s lightweight champions. Top Rank does not say who will be the champion, but it is likely to be Shakur if he still holds the WBC title.
That won’t happen because of the series of fights that Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has lined up for him next year, against William Zepeda and Gervonta Davis. If the WBC title is snatched from Tank, Mason can forget about getting a shot at him because the player from Baltimore will probably sit on the top of the WBC, focusing on other better known fights.
Shakur’s new promoter, Eddie Hearn, probably won’t let him get close to a puncher like Abdullah Mason after the way New Jersey played against hitters Edwin De Los Santos and Jeremiah Nakathilia. Shakur ran around as if his life depended on both battles, looking terrified. Hearn is trying to turn Shakur into a “world star,” and putting him with Mason would be dangerous.
Mason will be a nightmare for Keyshawn, who gets hit hard and has shown chin issues during his short career. Top Rank probably wants to keep Keyshawn and Abdullah Mason apart so they have separate income streams. But if Keyshawn is going to get busted soon, and it looks like it will, Mason might be the one to do it.
Lemos is a light welterweight who was chosen to drop down to 135 to face Keyshawn for an unknown reason. It doesn’t go down well that Lemos has to shed extra weight to face Keyshawn at lightweight.
Other Notable Fights On The Card
- Also on the November 8th card is WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr., who makes his first defense against #7 Derrieck Cuevas in the joint. That should be a fun fight as long as it lasts.
- Middleweight Troy Isley (13-0, 5 KOs) fights Tyler Howard (20-1, 11 KOs) in a ten-round fight. If Howard has any pop in his punches, he can win this fight because Isley has shown a weak chin, and no power.
Two of boxing’s top talents are headed to VA 🔥#KeyshawnLemos | FRIDAY NOV8 | @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/ioa0xkjvWk
– Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) September 4, 2024
