It can be argued that Saturday’s Teofimo vs Shakur main event of the Ring 6 card is the most consequential fight between two Americans since Terence Crawford leveled Errol Spence Jr. in 2019. When the fighters are known by their first names like pop starts, you know they command attention.
Teofimo Lopez of Brooklyn (22-1, 13 KOs) and Newark-born Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) rose through the New York amateur system and have been well acquainted for more than a decade. In the Rio 2016 Olympics, Lopez fought for Honduras 2016 Olympics, while Stevenson won a silver medal.
The pair have been on a collision course for the last decade, and to the delight of the boxing world, this fight wasn’t endlessly put off. The two will meet at a sold-out Madison Square Garden Saturday on DAZN PPV. The main card starts at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
Major Stakes for Teofimo vs Shakur
The Ring and Lopez’s WBO Junior Welterweight titles are on the line. Stevenson, currently the WBC Lightweight champion, moves up as the challenger. Should Stevenson win, it will be his fourth division world title.
Lopez won the title with his statement victory, still considered among his best, against Josh Taylor two years ago.
But it can be argued the stakes are far higher than the belts. Whoever wins this fight has a good argument as the top American talent in boxing and cements a Hall of Fame legacy.
We’ll let Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn describe the importance of Saturday’s fight.
“Everyone talks about making boxing great again, and you’ve got to tip your hat off to Shakur and Teo, because Shakur is dominating the 135-pound division.
“Both fighters know that there’s money out there, deals out there, to just keep on doing the standard thing, but these aren’t standard guys. These are guys that are chasing greatness in a sold-out arena that has hosted Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Rocky Marciano. That’s what these guys are after.”
Tensions High Heading to Saturday
As the fight approaches, tension has grown. Tempers have flared between the camps. Lopez’s father, Teofimo Sr., and Stevenson’s grandfather, James Prince, have tangled as their proxies.
The final pre-fight news conference was in full cringe with gutter-style insults going in both directions. At Friday’s weigh-in, a full-scale brawl broke out, with trainer Bill Haney somehow in the middle of things.
Fortunately for the fans, Lopez and Stevenson got on and off the scales and out of MSG to prepare without incident. Lopez weighed in at 139.5 pounds, and Stevenson at 138.5 pounds.
Stevenson said on Thursday that the fight is not personal between him and Lopez. “It’s all business. I’m not treating it that way, but I’m one hundred percent focused and we’ll see on Saturday night.”
Lopez knows he’s expected to sell a fight with his unpredictable personality, willing to light it up from a standing start.
After the weigh-in, Lopez invited New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to attend the fight, saying, “I’m living my dream. I’m a walking image of it,” going on to insult Stevenson and whip up the Latino fans in Spanish, encouraging them to come support him.
How Will This Fight Play Out?
All the buildup aside, now it’s time to focus on the fight itself. Its intrigue lies mainly in seeing which style the fighters choose to use to play out the 12 rounds.
Stevenson is currently the top defensive fighter in boxing by the numbers. According to CompuBox stats, Stevenson maintains a +21.1 plus/minus rating, leading the sport in defensive control by forcing opponents to land only 18.8% of their power punches. In his last fight against offensive minded William Zepeda, Stevenson restricted Zepeda to landing just 27.8% of his punches (272 of 979), while he landed 52.5% of his punches.
Prince calls Stevenson one of a kind. “He’s his own person and a student of the game. He has taken aspects from the great Andre Ward, the great Roy Jones, yet he’s borrowed from all of them and blended them into his own mix. Now, he’s Shakur Stevenson. One of a kind.”
Although Stevenson has taken heat for being in less-than-exciting fights, no one would argue that the Stevenson vs Zepeda fight wasn’t entertaining.
Lopez’s performances have often been perplexing, veering from lackluster to brilliant. His victories over Vasiliy Lomanchenko and Josh Taylor showed he can deal with a skilled opponent, while his loss to George Kambosos Jr. has aged poorly as Kambosos Jr. hasn’t won a significant fight since then.
As Lopez has moved up in weight, the raw punching power he displayed early in his career isn’t serving him anymore at 140 pounds. He has to fight with volume and aggression, and he has to go against his nature as a counterpuncher to do what he can to pressure Stevenson. He struggled against a similar defensive fighter in Sandor Martin, famously asking after a narrow loss, “Do I still got it?”
Prediction: Shakur Stevenson Won’t Be Denied
Stevenson needs to stick with what he does best. We won’t see a performance like the one against Zepeda, where Stevenson took on his critics just as much as Zepeda to prove them wrong. He won over Saudi General Entertaining Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh, who had predicted what he called a “Tom and Jerry” fight.
Now, Stevenson can lean into his strengths and force Lopez to come at him while making him miss, picking his shots, and making Lopez look foolish.
It might look like a boring fight to the uninitiated fan, but if you watch more closely, you will feel the tension as in a horror film, waiting for the monster hiding around the corner.
The odds favor Stevenson, but they aren’t especially wide. Nevertheless, it’s hard to see any way Stevenson loses unless disaster strikes. It could come down to Stevenson’s fragile hands, which have given him trouble and, in several cases, reduced him to being a one-handed fighter. Still, his defensive skills have bailed him out.
PREDICTION: There’s just no picking against Stevenson. He wins by decision but it will be hard to score and the cards could be all over the place.
Whoever wins will instantly secure a place on the Top Ten pound-for-pound list. Save your thirst for action for the undercard, and enjoy two skilled fighters at work.
Keyshawn Davis Rehab Tour Begins
In the co-main event, WBO top-ranked Keyshawn Davis of Norfolk, Virginia (13-0, 9 KOs) returns in a new weight division after his disastrous scale-fail and meltdown last summer. He will face the always tricky challenger Jamaine Ortiz of Worcester, Massachusetts (20-2, 10 KOs).
Davis, who has battled problems outside the ring, needs to demonstrate that he’s got his act together or Ortiz will gladly play spoiler by frustrating Davis. Ortiz’s only losses were narrow decisions to Teofimo Lopez and Lomachenko. Of those losses, Ortiz said this week, “I learned a lot, especially to not leave it [decisions] to the judges. I don’t expect it to go to the scorecards.”
Carrington and Miller Represent for New York
Photo: Cris Esqueda, Matchroom Boxing
Brooklyn native Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington (16-0, 9 KOs) will have his fans at The Garden on his side as he pursues his first championship title. Carrington faces veteran Carlos Castro of Mexico for the vacant WBC Featherweight Championship. You might ask how Castro merited this fight after coming off a loss to Stephen Fulton. The WBC has Castro ranked second behind Nathaniel Collins of Scotland. We argue Ra’eese Aleem deserves it more, but Carrington is well liked and popular and he’s being given every potential of success here.
In the category of so bad it’s good, heavyweights Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller of Brooklyn (26-1, 22 KOs) will go after Kingsley “Black Lion” Ibeh, a native of Nigeria fighting out of Phoenix (16-2, 14 KOs). To borrow a phrase from our friends Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri, if we’re lucky we will see ‘big meaty men throwing heat,’ AKA a classic slobberknocker.
Saudi Boxer Makes History
Opening the card, Saudi Arabian prospect Ziyad ‘Zizo’ Almaayouf (7-0, 1 KO) looks to shine against Kevin Castillo of Ecuador (5-2) in a Super Lightweight bout. Surprisingly, Almaayouf is the first-ever Saudi fighter to appear at Madison Square Garden. At Thursday’s news conference, Almaayouf spoke movingly on Thursday about this fight.
“Legacy, memories, and dreams … How about Saudi Arabia’s first professional boxer who had no ring, no bags, for years and years. How about dreaming about Madison Square Garden then and actually getting there? I need to take this opportunity.
Saturday night, I’ll become the first professional boxer from Saudi Arabia to fight at Madison Square Garden. You know how many kids, Arab,s and Saudis who see me and dream that they can fight at Madison Square Garden?
“I feel like a superhero. Gotham has Batman … Saudi Arabia has Zizo. Saturday night I’ll make history.”
Adames Out Of Title Defense; Toussaint Steps Up Against Williams
WBC World Middleweight Champion Carlos Adames of Colombia (24-1, 18 KOs) was forced to bow out of his title defense against Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams of Florida (19-1, 13 KOs), reportedly due to illness.
Replacement opponent Wendy Toussaint of Huntington, New York (17-3, 10 KOs) is the late replacement. Toussaint is a local favorite who regularly appears on the “Rockin Fights” series from Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing stable. He moves up from super welterweight for this fight. There will be no title in play in this ten-round fight.
Gayle Falkenthal is an award-winning boxing journalist and the only woman journalist who is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). She is the Managing Editor for NY Fights based in San Diego, California.