Abdullah Mason vs. Jeremia Nakathila is the new headliner for Saturday’s event live on ESPN due to Keyshawn Davis failing to make weight for his title defense of his WBO lightweight belt against Edwin De Los Santos at Friday’s weigh-in today. The event is at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
It’s fortunate for Top Rank that they had the talented Abdullah Mason on the undercard, because he’s arguably a more entertaining fighter to watch than Keyshawn Davis. He doesn’t talk trash like him, but his fights are a lot more exciting to watch due to his knockouts.
Abdullah Mason Steps Up
Keyshawn revealed today that he’d already planned to make his fight against De Los Santos his last at 135 and would be moving up to 140. His failure to make weight is viewed as a result of his lack of concern for retaining his WBO lightweight title.
Top Rank has slid the originally planned 10-round co-feature fight between lightweight Mason (18-0, 16 KOs) and Nakathila (26-4, 21 KOs) to the main event. The new co-feature bout is the Kelvin Davis vs. Nahir Albright in a light welterweight contest.
Event Broadcast Details
Saturday’s Mason vs. Nakathila event will be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+, beginning at 10:-00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT.
Fans are upset with the Davis vs. De Los Santos fight being canceled. However, Keyshawn weighed in 4.3 pounds over the 135-lb limit at 139.3 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in. It was too much of a weight advantage for him, and he likely would have put on an additional 10 to 15 lbs, making the fight unfair.
Preliminary Card Fights
The preliminary card starts at 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 p.m. PT on ESPN+. These are the fights on that portion of the card:
- Tiger Johnson vs. Janelson Bocachica
- Troy Isley vs. Etoundi Michel William
- Keon Davis vs. Michael Velez
- Euri Cedeño vs. Abel Mina
- Deric Davis vs. Naheem Parker
- Patrick O’Connor vs. Marcus Smith
“Abdullah isn’t one to talk. He’s not one about no nonsense. That’s what you got to understand,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about Abdullah Mason. “Abdullah is a quiet killer. He’ll get in there and obliterate you. If you don’t belong in the ring with him, he’s knocking you out. He’s getting you out of there.
“You’re going to find out real soon. If Keyshawn wants to bark up that tree, you already know what it is, Key. You know Abdullah is the real deal. We’ll see if that fight materializes.”
