WBC welterweight world champion Mario Barrios has laid out his prediction ahead of this weekend’s blockbuster showdown between Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson.
Stevenson has cruised through the weight divisions with little trouble thus far, becoming a three-division world champion by picking up belts at each of featherweight, super-featherweight and lightweight.
Now, the reigning WBC lightweight world champion ventures up to super-lightweight, where he is tasked with WBO titleholder and arguable 140lb poster boy, Teofimo Lopez, for what is undoubtedly the toughest test of his career to date.
Speaking with The Ring, Barrios revealed that he is favouring the skills of Stevenson, despite Lopez’s two career-best wins as an underdog when tasked with Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor in recent years.
“I think that it’s going to be a really interesting chess match. I’m leaning with Shakur in that fight. I think that he has just perfected his boxing, his style. I’ve got a lot of admiration for Shakur and for what he does in the ring.
“I’m not saying that Teofimo isn’t great, but in that fight I am leaning with Shakur.”
Barrios then went on to explain how Lopez could once again pull off the upset and reaffirm his position as a pound-for-pound superstar.
“Teofimo would have to go out there and make it very difficult for Shakur to get comfortable but that is easier said than done. Shakur is somebody that sits in there very confidently, he gets comfortable very quick, he has distance down like crazy.
“I don’t think that [getting Stevenson uncomfortable] is something that is easy to be done but it’s boxing, so who knows?”
Lopez-Stevenson takes place on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, New York, where the American duo headline a bill that features two additional world title contests.
