Teofimo Lopez says the reason he doesn’t want to fight lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson is because he saw how he was suicidal after a loss in 2015 at the National Golden Gloves in Las Vegas.
Lopez says Shakur wanted to go to the top of the hotel and “jump off.” Teofimo adds that he doesn’t want to have the “blood” on his hands if Shakur falls apart after losing to him and takes his own life.
Fans saw Shakur cry after his defeat in the 2016 Olympic finals against Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez. He was all broken up after that defeat. The judges weren’t into giving Shakur a win after he was outworked by a young Robeisy, who was on the attack the entire fight, outslugging him.
That fight showed the blueprint for defeating Shakur: attacking him relentlessly, chasing him down, and not letting him win rounds with his low output.
“I ain’t trying to give that man his 1st loss. I’ll let somebody else take that,” said Teofimo Lopez to the Come and Talk to Me channel about why he’s not interested in fighting Shakur Stevenson.
“I’ve seen Shakur lose in the amateurs. This one time in Vegas, National Golden Gloves 2015, Shakur lost to Ruben Villa, and then he wanted to go to the hotel’s rooftop and jump off. I ain’t trying to have actual blood in my hands.”
Teofimo fights at 140 now, and he’s big for that weight class. In making weight for Teofimo’s last fight against Steve Claggett on June 29th, he appeared badly drained and performed poorly, struggling to beat the fringe contender by a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight closer than the judges’ scores.
Shakur looks big for the 135-lb division, but his lack of power makes it near-impossible for him to move up to 140 to fight the stronger punchers like Teofimo, Alberto Puello, Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela and Liam Paro. Those guys hit too hard and would be difficult for Shakur to handle.
Stevenson had recent hand surgery, but he’s expected to defend his WBC lightweight title against William Zepeda in February. That will be a very difficult fight for Shakur because Zepeda is a pressure fighter who can punch and has a high output. Moreover, Zepeda cuts off the ring well and walks through punches to land his powerful body shots. He’s kryptonite for runners.
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