{"id":361750,"date":"2026-01-09T23:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361750\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T23:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:28:06","slug":"shakur-stevenson-recalls-sparring-session-with-teofimo-lopez-ahead-of-world-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361750\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson recalls sparring session with Teofimo Lopez ahead of world title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> believes that he has gleaned enough information about Teofimo Lopez<\/a> to exploit his \u2018mistakes\u2019 on January 31.<\/p>\n

The pair will square off for Lopez\u2019s WBO super-lightweight title at Madison Square Garden, New York, in arguably the most intriguing fight that has been announced for 2026 so far.<\/a><\/p>\n

Entering their contest as a slight favourite, Stevenson \u2013 an unbeaten southpaw who currently holds the WBC lightweight strap \u2013 is now bidding to become a four-division world champion.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps unsurprising, too, that many are picking him to dethrone Lopez, especially when considering his last performance, against William Zepeda, in July.<\/a><\/p>\n

Back then, Stevenson produced a versatile display, often switching his approach from aggressive to calculated, to convincingly outpoint his relentless opponent.<\/p>\n

Along with that, the 28-year-old\u2019s consistency at world level has inspired many to view him as a safer bet to Lopez \u2013 an ultra-talented, but largely unpredictable, champion.<\/p>\n

A tendency to blow hot and cold has perhaps removed a degree of lustre from \u2018The Takeover\u2019, though victories over Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor have equally proven that he is capable of extraordinary things.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe sparred like three rounds. It was cool; [there] wasn\u2019t really too much to gauge. We got in there, I felt like I got off, he probably feel like he did something.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my memory, I feel like he can\u2019t beat me. He does a lot of things well \u2013 I think he\u2019s flashy \u2013 but it\u2019s just some basic stuff where I feel like he makes mistakes, and I think I\u2019m going to capitalise on those mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson believes that he has gleaned enough information about Teofimo Lopez to exploit his \u2018mistakes\u2019 on January…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-361750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}