{"id":215716,"date":"2025-10-15T17:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215716\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:09:14","slug":"teofimo-lopez-promises-to-sleep-shakur-stevenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215716\/","title":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez promises to &#8216;sleep&#8217; Shakur Stevenson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/fighters\/teofimo-lopez-399\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teofimo Lopez Jr. <\/a>and <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/fighters\/shakur-stevenson-623\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shakur Stevenson <\/a>work behind the scenes to secure a highly anticipated matchup, two of the most skilled stars in the sport continue to build up their bout in public.<br \/>On Tuesday, Lopez and Stevenson went back and forth with each other <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DPzBhFQDE7L\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on social media<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Destiny is calling. I can feel it,&#8221; wrote Stevenson. &#8220;Four-division champion on the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Soon afterward, Lopez replied: &#8220;I\u2019m putting you to sleep for all the times you put your fans to sleep with your performances! Sorry ass [expletive]. I got a new nickname for you: Mr. Sandman.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Stevenson responded by saying: &#8220;You stopped zero people at 140. Now you\u2019re gone, put me to sleep? Teofimo, your time is up. I hope you enjoyed your run \u2013 four-division champion on the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) and The Ring and WBO junior welterweight champion Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) have consistently alluded in recent weeks that they are supposed to be fighting each other next. <\/p>\n<p>In September, they were front and center on \u201cInside The Ring\u201d promoting their pitting.<\/p>\n<p>The former lightweight champion Lopez&#8217;s run at 140 pounds has featured five consecutive decision wins since stopping Pedro Campa during his division debut in 2022. Lopez\u2019s most recent <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/news\/teofimo-lopez-arnold-barboza-result-times-square-card\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">win was against Arnold Barboza Jr. <\/a>in May during The Ring card in Times Square, New York. <br \/>Stevenson, meanwhile, scored one of the finest performances of his career in July on the Ring III card by <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/news\/more-offensive-minded-shakur-stevenson-picks-apart-william-zepeda-retains-wbc-lightweight-t-itle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beating William Segura <\/a>via unanimous decision. He is currently ranked No. 8 on The Ring\u2019s pound-for-pound list. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pound-for-pound, I\u2019m going to beat the man at 140, get the Ring Magazine belt, and laugh at all who doubted,&#8221; said Stevenson. &#8220;No tune ups, no fights to get comfortable at the weight \u2014 just big balls and big dreams.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Teofimo Lopez Jr. and Shakur Stevenson work behind the scenes to secure a highly anticipated matchup, two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2989,2983,2831,2988,2981,2984,2985,2986,2987,2982,1920,2993,2992,1913,2976,2977,2990,2978,2975,2994,2772,85,2991,2974,2980,2979],"class_list":["post-215716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-results","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-news","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}