By Tom Donelson (BWAA) Member Boxing Writers Association of America
Shakur Stevenson easily dominate Teofimo Lopez as he showed great boxing skills. This was a fight in which Stevenson connected on twice as any punches, and his accuracy was 44 percent versus Lopez connect rate of 15 percent. For the most part this was an easy fight to score as He landed more punches in every round but one. You could have scored 120-108 but the judges had it 119-109 giving Lopez only the 8th round.
In the eleventh round he showed this fight in microscopic as he started the round with quartet of hard punches and Lopez moved forward quickly, only to be hit with an accurate hook. Stevenson then landed two right hands followed by left hook. Lopez tried to get inside, but a stiff jab stop his momentum and as the round ended, Stevenson nails Lopez as time ran np down.
Lopez landed 105 jabs and this allowed him to control the real estate between the two, and he connected on half of his power shots. Lopez averaged only 6 punches a round connected which was slightly below Stevenson allowed in his previous 12 rounds.
Stevenson has now moved up the elite levels of the boxing world as he once the outside looking in of the four young kings, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, and Teofimo Lopez but now he may be he new king as he now has four world championship in four different weight divisions.
As ESPN Andreas Hale observed, “Although he could look to become undisputed at 140 pounds by chasing fights against titleholders Richardson Hitchins (IBF), Gary Antuanne Russell (WBA), and Dalton Smith (WBC), will any of those names really add to his legacy? None would be favored to beat him and would likely come in as significant underdogs. For Stevenson, his next move will likely require putting himself at another perceived disadvantage to level the playing field.”
He could move up to welterweight and go after Devin Haney championship and maybe be the winner of the Ryan Garcia – Mario Barrios welterweight championship fight. He even called out middleweight Connor Benn.
This was the first major fight of 2026 and sold-out Madison Square Garden, and this bout featured two of best in boxing fighting. The opening round was fast paced and from the beginning it was Stevenson fight. By the end of the third round, Stevenson clean and fast punching to go with southpaw stance dominated as Lopez face looked bruise a by the sixth, bleeding above his left eye.
By the tenth round it looked like a sparring session with Lopez playing the role of a sparing partner.
After the fight, the boxing world now has a new superstar, Shakur Stevenson.
