Stevenson’s coach, Wali Moses, then accidentally gave away the entire blueprint. “We wanted to push the pace on Lopez so we didn’t really have to fight,” he said Fight Hub TV. It wasn’t routine coach talk, but a clear statement of intent, with the plan centered on control rather than late pressure or collapse. The goal was to take away the space and timing Lopez needed to start, and never let him find a rhythm that could become dangerous.
The stitch was the tool, but not in the way that highlight clips usually present it. Stevenson’s jab acted as a barrier, recovering Lopez’s feet and halting his forward movement before exchanges could ever form. Over time, that repeated interruption stripped Lopez of initiative. He no longer chose moments. He responded to them.
That explains Lopez’s output better than any round-by-round analysis. When a fighter throws the majority of his punches to the body, it can read as commitment or adaptation. Here it reads as a concession. The head was not available. The lanes were closed. The body was the only remaining target that didn’t require winning a timing battle he had already lost.
Moses also noted that Stevenson could have taken more risks as the fight went on. He didn’t need to. Lopez never forced escalation. There was no moment where Stevenson had to answer pressure with urgency or trade danger for momentum. The fight stayed exactly where the plan intended it to stay, and once it did, the scorecards became a formality rather than a concern.
This is the version of Stevenson that continues to alienate the casuals. The performance offered little spectacle and no drama. It offered something colder. Control without confrontation. Progress without escalation. A battle decidedly not by moments, but by their absence.
Lopez entered the ring to break the rhythm. Instead, Stevenson gave him structure, then tightened it round by round. By the time Lopez looked for something else, the terms were already set and the lead already built. The outcome was never harsh. It was simply unattainable.
