In July, Conor Benn and Shakur Stevenson sat next to each other on The Ariel Helwani Show and agreed that they would like to fight. There was also the usual back-and-forth between two fighters sizing each other up and making predictions about what would happen if they met.
However, for that to come to fruition, Benn must lose weight and return to welterweight, where he is lined up to take his chance against the winner of the WBC title fight between Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia in February.
Stevenson’s future is much more certain: go to New York’s Madison Square Garden on January 31 and beat WBO super lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez. If he succeeds, he will become four-weight world champion in just over five years.
Lopez starts as a slight underdog in his fourth title defense, but their pedigree and IQ are such that it’s easy to make the case for either man to win. It may not be an end-to-end fight, but it will be a fascinating spectacle with the boxing world obsessed with it.
Benn, meanwhile, has regained some pride and resumed his career with a victory over Chris Eubank Jnr in their rematch last month. The Matchroom fighter, like many other boxing personalities, is in Dubai this week for the latest IBA card headlined by Kubrat Pulev and Murat Gassiev.
Boxing King Media caught up with Benn and asked him for his prediction on Lopez – Stevenson. “The Destroyer” replied:
“We’ll see what Shakur is made of. I feel like I’d root for Teo. Yeah.”
Lopez vs. Stevenson caps an unusually busy January for boxing, with Subriel Matias vs. Dalton Smith, Liam Paro vs. Paddy Donovan and Moses Itauma vs. Jermaine Franklin among the highlights.
