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.