Hellbent on proving disrespectful skeptics wrong, one of boxing’s best defensive fighters abandoned those protective skills and took risks to stand and trade with the menacing Mexican southpaw. A more offensive-minded Stevenson delivered the most entertaining 12-round performance of his career against an undefeated opponent he dominated.

Still, Davis didn’t like what he witnessed from his close friend in the co-feature of “The Ring III” card July 12 in Flushing, New York.

“I told Shakur, ‘Don’t ever do that again. Make people pay. Take everything and give them nothing – period,’ ” Davis told The Ring before he and Stevenson competed on “The Ring 6” card Saturday night at sold-out Madison Square Garden.

Davis, 26, and Stevenson, 28, have taken a comparable approach to what looks like the best junior welterweight fight that can be made at the moment. They remain committed to the pact they made that they would never fight, no matter how much money they’re offered.

That’s unfortunate for boxing fans because — with all due respect to 140-pound champions Richardson Hitchins, Gary Antuanne Russell and Dalton Smith — Stevenson and Davis demonstrated during their impressive victories over Teofimo Lopez and Jamaine Ortiz that they pose the greatest threats to each other.

Davis (14-0, 10 KOs) became the first fighter to knock out Ortiz (20-3-1, 10 KOs), who he dropped twice with body shots and stopped with 13 seconds to go in the co-feature. It was an especially important performance from Davis, who needed to revive his career after his hometown meltdown cost him the WBO lightweight title at the scale and a seven-figure purse seven months earlier in Norfolk, Virginia.

“The Businessman” reminded even the ficklest fight fans why he is one of the sport’s most tantalizing talents. Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) secured his spot among boxing’s top five pound-for-pound by exposing Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) in a bout that wasn’t remotely competitive.

They talked afterward about boxing many of the top operators in the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions. Devin Haney, Conor Benn, Lewis Crocker, Smith, Hitchins. Seemingly everyone, unfortunately for boxing fans, except each other.

It is customary for the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO to charge champions a fee if he or she fights for another organization’s title in a different weight class.

It typically costs a champ between $10,000 and $20,000 for the leeway to do that. If that champion wins a title in a different division, he or she is usually afforded some time to choose a weight class for his or her next fight.

For example, Stephen Fulton was allowed to keep the WBC featherweight title when he moved up four pounds for a fight with WBC super featherweight champ O’Shaquie Foster last year. The WBC embarrassingly accommodated Fulton again when he came in two-plus pounds overweight December 5 for the Foster fight by sanctioning it as a lightweight championship match.

Only then did the WBC strip Fulton of its featherweight title.

The WBC’s rules were oddly different for Stevenson, who was billed $100,000 for fighting for the WBO junior welterweight title. He was strangely stripped a mere four days after he defeated Lopez because he refused to pay an exorbitant non-sanctioning fee for a fight that didn’t involve the WBC.

Eddie Hearn has repeatedly reminded whoever will listen that Shakhram Giyasov is the WBA’s mandatory challenger in the welterweight division for going on a year now.

It never appears, however, that the unbeaten Uzbek gets any closer to actually securing the title shot he has long been owed. Watching WBA champ Rolando “Rolly” Romero and Benn literally go head to head at ringside Saturday night at Madison Square Garden was a public spectacle that should concern Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs), who told The Ring late last year that he has no intention of accepting any more money to step aside and allow others to get the championship match he wants.

Hearn, of course, also promotes the much more marketable Benn, the popular Brit who is likely to get a welterweight title shot regardless of whether he deserves it. That shouldn’t come at Giyasov’s expense, no matter how much more profitable being in the Benn business might be.

The questionable nature of the decision notwithstanding, Josh Kelly completed a remarkable comeback Saturday night from a sixth-round TKO loss to David Avanesyan in February 2021.

Dismissed as another overhyped British prospect, the ever-confident fighter nicknamed “Pretty Boy” slowly but surely rebuilt his career as a junior middleweight and took a calculated risk for short money by challenging IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev. Kelly (18-1-1, 9 KOs) dropped the defending champ in the fourth round, got off the canvas himself in the ninth and edged the favored Russian by majority decision to become a world champ in Newcastle.

Murtazaliev’s team petitioned the IBF this week for an immediate rematch in part because British judge Steve Gray scored the 12th round even. Had Gray given the final round to Murtazaliev (23-1, 17 KOs), as did Polish judge Pawel Kardyni, he would’ve retained his belt because their thoroughly competitive fight would’ve been declared a majority draw.

Regardless, Kelly capitalized on the most important opportunity of his career and finally realized the potential he flashed as a member of the 2016 British Olympic team.

■ It’s not Hamzah Sheeraz’s fault that Diego Pacheco apparently didn’t want to fight him, either, for the vacant WBO super middleweight title. It is disappointing nonetheless that the British star’s first fight in approximately 10 months after his career-changing destruction of Edgar Berlanga will come against Germany’s Alem Begic (29-0-1, 23 KOs), who is 38 yet essentially untested.

■ Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington answered a lot of questions Saturday night, most notably how he would respond to adversity against a dangerous opponent. Carrington’s comeback from getting hurt by one of Carlos Castro’s punches to the top his head in the fourth round was almost as impressive as the three-punch KO combination that that crowned him WBC featherweight champ at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

■ The WBC needs to do right by Austin “Ammo” Williams. It should either order middleweight champ Carlos Adames, if he doesn't move up in weight, to reschedule his fight with him next or match Williams with its interim champ, Jesus Ramos.

■ The $340 million lawsuit Floyd Mayweather filed this week against Showtime and the former head of its sports division, Stephen Espinoza, should eliminate any doubt as to whether he and Manny Pacquiao will eventually fight again.

■ It was amusing to watch Jarrell Miller come clean about his hairpiece in the numerous interviews he's done after becoming infamous Saturday night. If only the controversial heavyweight aka "Big Baby" had been as forthcoming about his rampant PED use.