Shakur Stevenson recalls sparring session with Teofimo Lopez ahead of world title fight

Shakur Stevenson believes that he has gleaned enough information about Teofimo Lopez to exploit his ‘mistakes’ on January 31.

The pair will square off for Lopez’s WBO super-lightweight title at Madison Square Garden, New York, in arguably the most intriguing fight that has been announced for 2026 so far.

Entering their contest as a slight favourite, Stevenson – an unbeaten southpaw who currently holds the WBC lightweight strap – is now bidding to become a four-division world champion.

It is perhaps unsurprising, too, that many are picking him to dethrone Lopez, especially when considering his last performance, against William Zepeda, in July.

Back then, Stevenson produced a versatile display, often switching his approach from aggressive to calculated, to convincingly outpoint his relentless opponent.

Along with that, the 28-year-old’s consistency at world level has inspired many to view him as a safer bet to Lopez – an ultra-talented, but largely unpredictable, champion.

A tendency to blow hot and cold has perhaps removed a degree of lustre from ‘The Takeover’, though victories over Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor have equally proven that he is capable of extraordinary things.

Either way, Stevenson, who has previously shared a few rounds of sparring with Lopez, believes that his superior skillset will pay dividends later this month.

Speaking with ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT, the Newark man insisted that, regardless of any sparring stories, there exists no world in which Lopez gets the better of him.

“We sparred like three rounds. It was cool; [there] wasn’t really too much to gauge. We got in there, I felt like I got off, he probably feel like he did something.

“From my memory, I feel like he can’t beat me. He does a lot of things well – I think he’s flashy – but it’s just some basic stuff where I feel like he makes mistakes, and I think I’m going to capitalise on those mistakes.”

Lopez has previously gone on record to claim that, as their sparring session progressed, he began to find success against the near unsolvable puzzle of Stevenson’s style.