{"id":685702,"date":"2026-01-10T01:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685702\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T01:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:28:12","slug":"shakur-stevenson-recalls-sparring-session-with-teofimo-lopez-ahead-of-world-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685702\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson recalls sparring session with Teofimo Lopez ahead of world title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/shakur-stevenson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shakur Stevenson<\/a> believes that he has gleaned enough information about <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/teofimo-lopez\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Teofimo Lopez<\/a> to exploit his \u2018mistakes\u2019 on January 31.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/boxing\/how-to-watch-teofimo-lopez-vs-shakur-stevenson-date-start-time-fight-card-live-stream\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">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<p>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<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/shakur-stevenson-beats-william-zepeda-by-unanimous-decision\/#:~:text=Shakur%20Stevenson%20beats%20William%20Zepeda%20by%20unanimous%20decision%20%7C%20Boxing%20News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">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<p>Back then, Stevenson produced a versatile display, often switching his approach from aggressive to calculated, to convincingly outpoint his relentless opponent.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PQrXDH-BdKs?si=-6MqI26ba7e0rFOY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<blockquote>\n<p>\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<p>\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<\/blockquote>\n<p>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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-685702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115868211796162946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}