Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson Date & Location Revealed

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson is reportedly set to fight Teofimo Lopez on January 31st. The match-up will be the main event of the New York card and Lopez's WBO super-lightweight title will be on the line.

Lopez had also been looking to take on Jaron "Boots" Ennis (34-0), and Ryan Garcia was also in the mix. In choosing Stevenson, Lopez is taking the fight with the lowest risk but also the most significant upside. Should he prevail, he could be in the mix for pound-for-pound status, but early odds makers have him as the underdog.

Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) fought at Riyadh Season earlier this year, stopping Josh Padley in nine rounds as part of the undercard of "The Last Crescendo" boxing event that featured a rematch between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd.

More recently, he put on a gutsy yet dominant performance over William Zepeda this past summer in New York, which earned him renewed attention from boxing fans. Stevenson is the one who has captured the imagination of the boxing public at present, and as the naturally smaller fighter, Lopez can assume he at least has a power advantage.

💥 STARTING OFF 2026 WITH A BANGER 💥

‼️ ANNOUNCED: Teofimo Lopez will defend his Ring and WBO junior welterweight world titles against Shakur Stevenson on January 31st, 2026, headlining The Ring VI in New York City, exclusively on DAZN 🔥 pic.twitter.com/EuV0Yuzoen
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) December 1, 2025

Former World Boxing Council interim lightweight titlist Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) was also eyeing a fight with Teofimo Lopez. On paper, such a fight is less of a risk for Lopez, as he could challenge Garcia at welterweight and maintain his 140 lb division title. However, he isn't ready to move up to 147 lbs., so a fight at that weight class doesn't make sense.

The Stevenson-Lopez fight will be big, but a Garcia-Lopez fight would be a massive event due to the ability of both fighters to "sell" the fight and attract the attention of boxing casuals.

For his part, Teofimo Lopez was last seen in the ring in May when he easily outpointed Arnold Barboza Jr in the fourth defense of his WBO Super Lightweight title. He was supposed to take on Devin Haney on August 16th in Riyadh, but his relationship with Riyadh Season went through a rough patch.

This could turn out to be a very tactical fight as both men are counterpunchers. Lopez, however, is the more explosive of the two and might change things up against Shakur Stevenson as he has so many times in the past. If Shakur Stevenson is this generation's Floyd Mayweather, then Lopez is its Roberto Duran.

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