{"id":558433,"date":"2026-02-01T10:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/558433\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T10:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:40:12","slug":"shakur-stevenson-dominates-to-become-four-division-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/558433\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson Dominates To Become Four-Division Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A masterful Stevenson<\/a> outboxed and out-thought Lopez<\/a> throughout the 12-round main event of \u201cThe Ring 6\u201d at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. Faced with his most accomplished, dangerous opponent, Stevenson stuck to his defensive principles, jabbed very effectively, consistently fought from his most comfortable range and defeated Lopez by unanimous decision in his 140-pound debut. <\/p>\n

Judges Max De Luca (119-109), Eric Marlinski (119-109) and Steve Weisfeld (119-109) credited Stevenson for winning 11 rounds apiece against an opponent who didn\u2019t make many adjustments once he fell behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did what I was supposed to do,\u201d Stevenson told DAZN\u2019s Chris Mannix in the ring. \u201cThis is the art of boxing. Hit, don\u2019t get hit, and pick guys apart. I can beat any of these guys. All I gotta do is put my mind to it. I told y\u2019all, I\u2019m the best fighter on the planet and I stand by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson, 28, won The Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles from Lopez and became a world champion in a fourth weight class. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist also owns the WBC lightweight title and could return to the 135-pound division if he isn\u2019t pleased with the 140-pound options for his next fight.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The left-handed Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs), of Newark, New Jersey, also ended Lopez\u2019s six-fight winning streak.<\/p>\n

Before Saturday night, the Brooklyn-born, 28-year-old Lopez hadn\u2019t lost since Australian underdog George Kambosos Jr.<\/a> beat him by split decision in November 2021 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) was 6-0 in junior welterweight bouts before he encountered Stevenson, who\u2019s ranked seventh on The Ring\u2019s pound-for-pound list.<\/p>\n

Stevenson was more respectful of Lopez\u2019s prowess than when he deliberately abandoned defense at times in his prior appearance. Intent to silence skeptics who questioned his willingness to take risks, Stevenson delivered plenty of entertainment while dominating powerful southpaw William Zepeda on July 12<\/a> in the co-feature of \u201cThe Ring III\u201d card at Louis Armstrong Stadium in nearby Queens.<\/p>\n

This performance wasn\u2019t as fan friendly as when he beat Mexico\u2019s Zepeda, but the final result was similar against a more capable opponent.<\/p>\n

All that was left to learn by the time the 12th round began was whether Stevenson would stop a demoralized Lopez, who was battered and bloodied. Stevenson couldn\u2019t hurt Lopez, but understandably seemed satisfied with the crowning achievement of his career thus far.<\/p>\n

Stevenson stung Lopez with a left and then a right with about 40 seconds to go in the 11th round. He stated in his corner before the round began that he wanted to stop Lopez.<\/p>\n

A disciplined Stevenson maintained control during the eighth, ninth and 10th rounds. By the time they approached the championship rounds, Lopez appeared resigned to losing a wide decision on the cards.<\/p>\n

Blood poured from a cut around Lopez\u2019s left eye by the time the 10th round ended. He somehow left his corner for the 11th round with blood streaming down the left side of his face.<\/p>\n

Stevenson controlled the action throughout the seventh, though Lopez landed a right hand a few seconds before it ended. Stevenson clipped an exposed Lopez with a right hook 25 seconds into the sixth round.<\/p>\n

Stevenson\u2019s straight left to the body backed Lopez toward the ropes with less than a minute remaining in the fifth round. A left by Stevenson connected as Lopez attempted to exchange with him 35 seconds into the fifth.<\/p>\n

Stevenson’s straight left landed with less than 10 seconds to go in the fourth round. Lopez lost his footing as they exchanged punches with just over 1:40 on the clock in the fourth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lopez landed a left hook off a break with 35 seconds to go in round three, when Stevenson slipped several of his punches. Stevenson\u2019s left landed, but Lopez countered with a right with under 1:20 on the clock in the third.<\/p>\n

Stevenson fell to the canvas, but Dock correctly called it a trip with 35 seconds to go in the second round. Stevenson landed two left hands and forced Lopez to move away from him with under a minute to go in the second round.<\/p>\n

Lopez backed Stevenson into a neutral corner and landed a left hook with about 1:10 to go in the first round, though Stevenson fired back and put Lopez on his back foot. Stevenson then landed a couple jabs and a right hand on the inside.<\/p>\n

Lopez didn’t have much success thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI been seeing it on tape,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cI watched him and I knew my jab was gonna kill him. I told everybody before the fight, I said, \u2018They gonna say I got the best jab in boxing after this fight.\u2019 Because I seen what he was weak at and I capitalized off it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A masterful Stevenson outboxed and out-thought Lopez throughout the 12-round main event of \u201cThe Ring 6\u201d at a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":558434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[244098,21354,244099,97212,1683,62,98048,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-558433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-results","tag-sports","tag-the-ring","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115994953368239842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}