On Saturday night, in front of a record-breaking sellout crowd of 21,324(Arena record for boxing) at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Shakur Stevenson, in his first fight at 140 pounds, easily defeated Teofimo Lopez by unanimous decision to capture Lopez’s WBO and Ring Magazine titles.
All three judges scored the fight 119-109 in favor of Stevenson, who is now a four-division world champion.
The Newark, New Jersey native was in complete control of the fight from start to finish. He used a strong jab and great defense to dominate the action. Stevenson, who came out of the battle with no damage, caused a cut over Lopez’s right eye.
Of his 165 punches landed, 105 of them were jabs from Stevenson, and he believes he has one of the best jabs in boxing.
“I watched him, and I knew my jab was going to kill him,” Stevenson said. “I told everybody before the fight. I said they’re going to say I got the best jab in boxing after this fight.”
The 28-year-old Lopez did throw more punches than Stevenson(468-372), but Lopez landed only 15% of his punches(72/468), and that’s because of Stevenson’s great defense.
This was a Mayweather-esque performance by the 28-year-old Stevenson. It was the epitome of hit-and-not-get-hit.
“I picked him apart and did what I was supposed to do,” Stevenson said. “This is the art of boxing: hit and don’t get hit and pick guys apart.”
After the fight, Conor Benn came into the ring to call out Stevenson, but that fight would require Stevenson to move up in weight. That probably doesn’t happen next or even ever, but who knows? Stevenson does have options at 140, including unifying against Dalton Smith or Richardson Hitchins.
Regarding Lopez, he may move up to 147, which might not be a bad move, and could give him an opportunity to get another belt at another weight class.
At the end of the day, Stevenson has proven that he is one of the pound-for-pound best in boxing.
Photo: Matchroom Boxing/Cris Esqueda
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