{"id":397563,"date":"2026-01-29T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397563\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:53:07","slug":"conor-benn-makes-his-pick-for-shakur-stevenson-vs-teofimo-lopez-hes-on-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397563\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Benn makes his pick for Shakur Stevenson vs Teofimo Lopez: &#8220;He&#8217;s on smoke&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/conor-benn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Conor Benn<\/a> will be a keen observer when <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/teofimo-lopez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teofimo Lopez<\/a> goes up against <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/shakur-stevenson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shakur Stevenson<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/mario-barrios-on-lopez-vs-stevenson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lopez defends his WBO super-lightweight title against reigning WBC lightweight champion Stevenson<\/a> at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, with Stevenson bidding to become a four-division world champion.<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson is seen as the favourite heading into the bout, but Lopez will be looking to replicate the past performances he produced against the likes of Vasilly Lomachenko and Josh Taylor in order to retain his title.<\/p>\n<p>British star Benn is set to be ringside for the bout, having been linked with both Stevenson and Lopez in recent times, as he plans his next move <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cm2e3n57d6mo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">following his unanimous decision victory over long-term rival Chris Eubank Jr<\/a> at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London back in November.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@matchroom\/video\/7598627895833038093\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Speaking to Matchroom Boxing<\/a>, Benn discussed his recent back and forths with Stevenson, but revealed he thinks Lopez has what it takes to claim the victory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShakur\u2019s on smoke you know. He messages me saying \u2018I\u2019m going to put it on you and you\u2019re going to get it next.\u2019 He\u2019s on smoke. I rate it for a little man, but I think Teo can cause an upset.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lopez has suffered just one defeat in the paid ranks against George Kambosos back in November 2021, while Stevenson is unbeaten, so if the defending champion was to earn the upset victory, he would not only retain his belt but also hand his rival the first loss of his professional career.<\/p>\n<p>                                            <script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor Benn will be a keen observer when Teofimo Lopez goes up against Shakur Stevenson this weekend. Lopez&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-397563","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\/397563","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=397563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}