The mercurial Teofimo Lopez has weighed in with a prediction for a match-up between two potential rivals of his – Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson.
Talk surrounding a fight between undisputed lightweight champion Haney and Stevenson has gained traction over the past week or so, after Stevenson revealed he turned down a 75/25 purse split to take on ‘The Dream.’
Despite this, he remains mandatory challenger and is looking to the WBC to help negotiations along.
In a recent interview with ES News, Lopez revealed he would favour Stevenson to dethrone Haney if the fight was to happen next.
“Shakur vs Haney? It may look just how it did in sparring, very technical. Definitely a lot of noise when they’re fighting each other, but Shakur’s very technical and he knows how to break down a fighter.”
“After seeing Devin Haney’s performance against Lomachenko, it showed what kind of calibre fighter he is, and I don’t think his IQ is as high as people thought or imagined it would be, so I give the edge to Shakur.”
Lopez has not been shy in criticising Haney recently, amidst rumours that a fight between the pair for Lopez’ recently acquired WBO super lightweight world title could be in the works.
Despite big question marks over his mentality going into his latest fight, ‘The Takeover’ put in an excellent performance to topple long reigning 140lbs champion Josh Taylor at the Madison Square Garden Theatre.
Though Lopez has since claimed he has retired, he has not officially vacated the WBO world title and it feels like an inevitability he will return to the ring, even admitting he would be happy to continue his career should a lucrative enough offer be presented to him.