Shakur Stevenson Targeted By Lopez For A January Payday Fight

Teofimo Lopez reacted to Shakur Stevenson’s dismissive “lil dude” reference to him by saying that SNAC won’t help him when they fight in January.

It’s the first time that WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo (22-1, 13 KOs), has given a date for when he wants to fight Shakur. We’ll see whether Stevenson is willing to fight Lopez in a stationary one-on-one style as he did his last opponent, William Zepeda, on July 12th. Shakur got hit a lot in that fight, well over 300 times. Those were not shots that were blocked by him unless you count getting hit to the body as being blocked.

Turki’s value for his millions

It’ll still require Turki Alalshikh to come through with the money for Lopez and Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) to fight. Teo won’t agree to a pay cut from the $10 million he received for his title defense against Arnold Barboza Jr. on May 2nd.

With the money that Alalshikh will be paying Shakur, he’s not going to want him to turn in a Jerry-esque performance of running around the ring for 12 rounds. He’s going to want value for the millions he pays Stevensons, and he’s right to expect that. It would look so bad if Shakur is booed out of the venue that night by fans if he chooses to run. I can see Turki in the front row, stewing with anger at the spectacle. He’ll likely be telling himself, ‘I should have known better than to use Shakur.’

It’s got to make Shakur happy that Lopez is now openly saying he plans on fighting him. He’s been hounding him nonstop for the last two weeks in what is a move to get a payday.

Stevenson’s focus on the payday

Stevenson prefers to go for the money rather than defend his WBC lightweight title against his top three contenders:

1. Andy Cruz
2. Ricardo Nunez
3. Jadier Herrera

‘SNAC won’t help you.’

“It’s going to feel good when this ‘Lil dude’ makes you his ‘lil b***’ in January! I suggest you take all the SNAC you possibly can, and even that won’t help,” said Teofimo Lopez on X, firing back at Shakur Stevenson’s comment.

U called me out lil dude, I told u im down 🤫 https://t.co/AgGRA1w2Oy

— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) August 7, 2025