After months and months of intense negotiations, WBO super lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez and WBC lightweight world champion Shakur Stevenson have finally reached an agreement. Their fight is official and will take place on January 31 in New York. Lopez will put his belt on the line, while Stevenson will look to become a champion in the fourth weight class of his career.
The announcement of this match has generated great excitement among experts and insiders. Both fighters have remarkable résumés, and there is no doubt that the winner will make a significant leap forward in The Ring’s P4P rankings.
Lopez has suffered only one professional defeat, at the hands of George Kambosos Jr in 2021, and he hasn’t missed a beat since. He is the lineal champion of the division, having defeated Scotland’s Josh Taylor, who in the past unified all four world titles.
Before that, his most prestigious victory was undoubtedly the surprise win over Vasyl Lomachenko in 2020, when Lopez capitalized on the Ukrainian’s passivity to build a huge lead in the first half of the fight, making Loma’s late comeback attempts insufficient.
Lopez also deserves credit for consistently accepting fights against opponents with styles that are difficult for him, and for managing to find the right key to edge ahead on the scorecards in tricky, complex matchups against Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz, even if not everyone agreed with those verdicts.
Stevenson is another elusive boxer who could cause major problems for Teofimo — an idea reflected in the opening betting odds, which strongly favor Shakur. The former Olympic silver medalist is still undefeated and has won almost all of his professional fights in dominant fashion.
His toughest win came in 2023 against Edwin De Los Santos in an extremely uneventful fight in which Stevenson limited himself almost exclusively to defending and using the right jab. However, it appears that the American was dealing with a shoulder issue on that occasion, which likely affected his performance.
All that’s left now is to wait and see which of these two talented practitioners of the Sweet Science will prevail.