Shane Mosley predicts Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez title fight: ‘I’m leaning towards him’

It has now been announced that WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson will move up in weight and challenge Teofimo Lopez for the WBO super lightweight crown. Now, Shane Mosley, who has reigned in both of those divisions, has offered his predictions for the fight.

After winning an Olympic silver medal at Rio 2016, Stevenson needed just 13 professional fights to get his hands on a world title, beating Joet Gonzalez for the WBO featherweight title in 2019.

Since then, Stevenson has remained undefeated as he moved up the weight divisions and became a three-division world champion. However, the lack of desire for a unification clash from his fellow lightweight titleholders forced the Newark-born sensation to look elsewhere for a superfight.

Instead, Stevenson will collide with Lopez, as he continues his efforts to prove his pound-for-pound skills to the boxing world. Speaking to FightHype.com, Mosley predicted a tactical encounter and gave Stevenson the edge, despite the increased weight.

“It’s a very good fight because Shakur is really tactical and very difficult to hit but at the same time Teofimo Lopez is also not that easy to hit and he has fought very good fighters like Lomachenko and other guys. [of the level] against which Shakur has not yet fought.

This is the fight where we really need to see what’s going to happen because it’s not like Teofimo Lopez is going to go straight at him and not move his head or nothing. So it’s going to be a tough fight for Shakur Stevenson as well, it’s a spectacular fight.

I’d probably lean towards Shakur because he’s probably a little better as a boxer.

Lopez-Stevenson will take place in New York on Saturday, January 31, and further details regarding the venue and undercard will be announced soon.