The fight between between Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson has finally been confirmed.
The all-American mega-fight was confirmed on Monday, with it taking place in New York City on January 31. It sees three-weight champion Stevenson moving up to challenge WBO super-lightweight title-holder Lopez, himself a two-weight world champion.
On paper, the matchup is a genuine 50-50. Both Lopez and Stevenson possess elite ability and ring IQ, and on their day are among the best fighters in the world — making any clear-cut prediction difficult.
Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter, now a pundit and host of The Porter Way Podcast, shared his early thoughts with Michelle Joy Phelps.
“On Teo’s best day he’s kind of unstoppable. I don’t know if he gets in his own way or he doesn’t adjust well. I’m really not sure what it is, but we’ve seen flaws in his game. We haven’t seen any flaws in Shakur’s game. Everyone would say his offence is his flaw because he’s not offensive enough. Get out of here with that.
“That being said, with Shakur you’ve got to be able to rough him up. You’ve got to be able to get out of the way of what’s coming after you and rough him up. One thing I really like about Teo is his explosiveness — he can be on top of you and unpredictable. If he’s using that, it’s going to be a great fight. But at the moment, I’d say 60-40 for Shakur.”
Trainer Robert Garcia is another big name that has also weighed in on the match-up.
