Teofimo Lopez Jnr believes Shakur Stevenson has agreed to face him because he was inspired by Terence Crawford’s victory over Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Lopez and Stevenson face one another on January 31 in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Lopez is 22-1 (13 KOs), while Stevenson is 24-0 (11 KOs).
“Shakur is stepping up because he’s got no one else to go after,” Lopez told DAZN. “He’s stepping up to trying to prove a point. His big bro, aka Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford, put on a huge upset and made a historical moment in time for the sport of boxing and changed it by beating Canelo Alvarez to become the undisputed super middleweight world champion so I think that things like that make Shakur want to step up to the plate and face Teofimo.”
While the two have taken different paths to their fight later this month, they were stablemates at Top Rank for years and they’ve sparred previously.
“He talks about this and that and about I was jealous of him,” Lopez added. “No, you were a 2016 USA silver medalist. You’re gonna get your signing bonus and all that extra stuff. Thing was, they were trying to secure him in a different route because they had put a lot of money in him. Me, I think I was supposed to be an opponent eventually. Now we’re back. This plan is against me, absolutely, but I think those that have the billions and have power here on earth, I think they have high hopes for me. I do. I think rightfully so they have high hopes for me. I’m gonna show everyone his defense is not as immaculate as they say it is. My job is to show the world the flaws that they can’t see. My job is to show the world that can’t nobody beat me. And I’m going to make it look pretty. And it’s going to be much prettier when I see him laid out flat.
