Madison Square Garden – Two of boxing’s best in Shakur Stevenson & Teofimo Lopez are set to meet at 140 lbs for the WBO & Ring Magazine titles this Saturday in New York City.
I have been looking into this fight from the get-go and even before then, as it had been rumored Shakur was looking to move up and win titles in another weight class. Shakur is one of the best in boxing in all levels of the game – distance, timing, countering, and IQ. He is as elite as they come, and learning from the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., ‘Bud’ Crawford, and Andre Ward, you can see a little bit of them in Shakur.
Styles make fights, and while Teofimo has plenty of talent and exceptional skills in his own right, his style is almost perfect for Shakur to take a decision here. A lot of boxing heads thought that the way to beat Shakur was with lots of volume, pressure, and dirty boxing. William Zepeda’s style emulated tha,t and he did not even come close to beating Shakur last summer. Shakur was able to stay very composed, counter, and use pinpoint punches to keep Zepeda off him just enough to win rounds for a unanimous decision. That pressure-heavy style with lots of volume is not who Teofimo Lopez is. He is not great at cutting off the ring and likes to burst in and out with punches at a time. That may not suit him well when dealing with someone of Shakur’s ability who can counter and time your punches. I do not see a finish happening as both fighters tend to stay in cruise control when winning rounds. With the likely fighter being Shakur his defense and distance management should keep him out of danger all the way to the judges’ scorecards.
Prediction and bet: Shakur Stevenson by decision (-190)
Thanks for reading, and best of luck!