{"id":419259,"date":"2026-01-19T12:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419259\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:47:08","slug":"shakur-stevenson-finally-secures-star-making-shot-vs-lopez-promises-to-seize-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419259\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson finally secures star-making shot vs. Lopez, promises to seize it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson <\/a>kept calling out the competition. Teofimo Lopez Jr. <\/a>finally answered. <\/p>\n

After years of yearning for a career-defining fight, Stevenson finally got the mega matchup he was looking for, and now he\u2019ll meet The Ring and WBO junior welterweight champion Lopez on January 31 to headline The Ring 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been thinking about fighting him since the amateurs,\u201d Stevenson said during a recent face-to-face conversation with Lopez on DAZN. \u201cI admired the type of boxer he was. He had the skillset to shine. I wanted to see myself against that. \u2026 If you look in and around my weight class, I can’t get the other fighters to get in the ring.\u201d <\/p>\n

As he became a 126-, 130- and 135-pound champion, Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) started screaming from the mountaintops calling for clashes against the likes of Gervonta Davis<\/a>, Devin Haney<\/a>, Ryan Garcia<\/a> and Vasiliy Lomachenko<\/a>.
But he could lure none of them into the ring. Instead, Stevenson had to settle for a group that\u2019s headlined with wins against William Zepeda<\/a>, Josh Padley<\/a>, Robson Conceicao<\/a>, Oscar Valdez<\/a> and Jamel Herring<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people didn’t give me the opportunity to show [my] greatness,\u201d said Stevenson. \u201cA lot of fighters either ducked or found the business way not to get in front of me. Teo gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve been building my career, and the moment has come. Teofimo was willing to do it, and now we’re here. I’m turned up. Let’s go get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fight whatever style is needed to win. I hope they expect a better version of me on fight night. I want to prove how great I am. After I get out of the ring, I want everyone to talk about how I am that guy. I am coming to put on a show.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs), who has a history of taking on tough challenges, as evidenced by his victories over Lomachenko and Josh Taylor<\/a>, proved to be an exception. <\/p>\n

Now, the underdog Lopez is ready to \u201cbreak the bank\u201d and give Stevenson a \u201crude awakening.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the best fighting the best. You see Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez fighting each other, and you want to emulate that,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cShakur is a great fighter. We can’t say we are the best and not test it. My goal is to defend my throne. I can\u2019t call it \u2018the takeover\u2019 and have someone take it over.\u201d <\/p>\n

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson kept calling out the competition. Teofimo Lopez Jr. finally answered. After years of yearning for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":["post-419259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-results","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-ca","tag-canada","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\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}