Keyshawn on Missing Weight for De Los Santos: "I Was Drinking Every Single Day"

Former WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis has opened up about the mental health struggles he faced on his path to the championship, which ultimately hindered his first title defense. Before his scheduled bout against Edwin De Los Santos, Davis failed to make weight, leading to the cancellation of the fight.

“I’m going to be very honest. During that camp, I was going through a lot of mental struggles, and the way I was dealing with it—I was literally drinking every single day in camp. I was basically drinking daily, and I was just hurting, bro, from the previous camp, and the camp before that camp, and those issues just followed me.

And, you know, I beat Lemos with a bad headspace, I knocked out Berinchyk with a bad headspace, so I was like: ‘Man, I can, I can fight, I can do this. If I just get to the fight, I’ll be fine.’ No lie. You know what I mean?

And I feel like that was the only reason why I couldn't drop those extra three pounds—because I was just drinking. You know what I mean?” Keyshawn revealed.

Davis (13-0, 9 KOs) is set to return to the ring on January 31 in a bout against Jamaine Ortiz on the undercard of the Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson fight. Previously, Keyshawn announced a complete overhaul of his coaching staff, having moved on from Brian "BoMac" McIntyre, the longtime trainer of Terence Crawford.