Masterful Shakur Stevenson outclasses Teofimo Lopez in shockingly one-sided demolition to become four-weight world champion

On a night that was supposed to provide the first true elite-level test of his career, Shakur Stevenson made it look like nothing of the sort by cruising past a toothless Teofimo Lopez with staggering ease in New York City.

This was supposed to be a true 50-50, with the undefeated Stevenson – hailing from Newark, New Jersey – bidding to make history by capturing world honors in a fourth weight class up against WBO and Ring Magazine super-lightweight champion Lopez, the Brooklyn native with some sizeable scalps on his resume in the great Vasily Lomachenko and Scottish icon Josh Taylor.

While his record was not unblemished – thanks to a shock defeat to George Kambosos Jr back in 2021 that most put down to a rare off-night – the champion ventured into this scrap at Madison Square Garden with a strong claim to being one of the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world. And that’s what made this lopsided demolition from Stevenson all the more astonishing.

Over the course of 12 remarkably comfortable rounds, of which perhaps he lost one or two at most, the challenger toyed with Lopez on his way to a near whitewash, before rightfully claiming a unanimous-decision victory following three identical judges’ scores of 119-109.

Stevenson was masterful here in the Big Apple, controlling the range expertly and staying out of harm’s way throughout while picking off a clumsy Lopez with crisp, chopping blows. Question marks may still remain around his power, particularly if he ventures up to 147lbs in the near future, but there is absolutely no doubting his class.

Lopez failed to get close to him all night, though his own frenzied, sloppy attacks hardly helped matters. The careless champion steamed in square-on and paid the price far too often, with his footwork all over the place at times. He was like putty in Stevenson’s hands.

Stevenson will surely be stunned by the ease at which he controlled the range perfectly throughout, while picking a disjointed and clumsy Lopez off on the back foot.

He may go by the moniker of The Takeover, but Lopez was the one ransacked here by a fighter who may well go down as a generational great when it’s all said and done.