Retired two-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi has predicted the upcoming clash between Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez.
Lopez is set to make the fourth defence of his WBO world super-lightweight title against Stevenson at the iconic Madison Square Garden on Saturday January 31.
Stevenson made his return to action on July 12 when he defeated Mexico’s William Zepeda via unanimous decision to defend his WBC lightweight title for the third time.
Lopez racked up his sixth straight win on May 2 when he defeated mandatory challenger Arnold Barboza Jr to defend his WBO crown for the third time.
Speaking to The Schmo, Malignaggi admitted that whilst Stevenson is expected to be victorious against Lopez, he says he wouldn’t be surprised if ‘The Takeover’ defies the odds and becomes the man to beat the unbeaten American.
“Yeah at first look, at first glance I mean this is Shakur Stevenson written all over it right? This is Shakur’s coming out party.
“This is where Shakur lives up to the expectation but there is a tricky element to this fight as well because Teofimo Lopez always saves his best performances for the moment when you write him off, for the moment when you’re ready to say okay he’s gone too far now he’s gonna lose, and his two career wins were where he’s been an underdog.
“I think he’s possibly, you know, the level of a fighter that could probably be the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport if he would just have the right opponents in front of him to beat because he would beat them. But this is the one guy where it’s really really tricky. It’s the one guy that could really offset that is Teofimo.”
The intriguing domestic clash between Stevenson and Lopez has captured the attention of a number of other prominent voices including Ryan Garcia who shared a damning verdict on what he believes the outcome will be.
