Shakur Stevenson is one of the more outspoken world champions, and he has set his targets on a fighter one division up.
The Newark native recently won a world title in his third weight class – lightweight – against Edwin De Los Santos. Whilst he was successful in the fight for the vacant belt that was recently vacated by Devin Haney, viewers felt the performance left a lot to be desired.
On the Porter Way podcast, Teofimo Lopez criticised the performance as dull.
“Do you guys still want to see a four million dollar man put you guys to sleep? Of course I’m talking about Shakur. If you want to see entertainment, pay the man for entertainment. I give it all different types of skills.”
Speaking to DAZN, Stevenson has now hit back claiming that Lopez was being friendly before giving his verdict.
“He’s fake. Fake. That was some fake ass s**t. I knew he was coming to the fight. Me and him was talking in the DMs about our kids, some real s**t. Then, you get on camera…”
Stevenson branded Lopez – who captured a super-lightweight world title in 2023 following his stint as unified champion at 135lbs – a hater.
“I said to him ‘yo, you little.’ I told him already in the DMs, we’re gonna fight each other. Hell nah [I didn’t expect him to say what he said.] Why do that? Nobody made you do that, there wasn’t any purpose, that was out of nowhere ‘okay I’m hating.’ He’s on some hating s**t. There’s no reason, there’s no beef. Even when I played with him in the dressing room, I wasn’t serious.”
Whilst Stevenson’s first defence of his belt isn’t yet pencilled in, Lopez is expected to return on Super Bowl weekend against Jamaine Ortiz.