Has Gold Fever Shakur seized Stevenson, which led him to prioritize theofimo Lopez over risky contenders?

Theofimo Lopez said in an interview today that he and Shakur Stevenson are being “prepared” in early 2026, which will be streamed on Netflix. He says he’s waiting for the Riyadh season to make ‘the fight’ happen to Stevenson (24-0, 11 COs).

Teofimo (22-1, 13 costs), WBO Light Welterweight, would probably be looking for a $ 10 million salary increase for his title defense against Arnold Barboza Jr. At Timi Alalshikh’s ‘Fatal Fury’ event earlier this year on May 2 at Times Square in New York.

What the wallet that the Teo receives, Shakur would predict a similar amount. According to Sportster, Shakur’s career-high wallet is $ 7 million for his title defense of his WBC lightweight belt against William Zepeda on July 12. So Stevenson could get a $ 10 million payday, which would be a big bump for him.

Interestingly, since Shakur got a taste of millions in the Zepeda, he has focused completely on the fight against Lopez. This makes some fans believe that Shakur’s interest is only in money, and no longer prove that he is the best.

In other words, they believe that Stevenson is now hungry, and therefore he ignores the risky contenders for lightweight, such as #1 WBC Andy Cruz and Jadier Herrera, who comes for his title. They see Shakur as signs of a golden fever now. Instead of plaguing for gold in 1848 such as the Fortune Seeker during the Gold Rush in California, Shakur was aimed at 140 at Theofimo.

“Shakur and I are prepared. We really want to give the fans a good performance. Hopefully the Riyadh season comes in and lets it happen,” Theofimo Lopez said Ring magazine about a potential battle between him and Shakur Stevenson in early 2026.

“We both want to fight. We talked about it on X. Now it’s the business side of the people to settle and finish it. It’s marketed to determine it,” TheOFIMO said.

Lopez against Stevenson is an excellent fight, but Turki will have to decide whether it is a big enough to head on Netflix. It is not a massive enough battle where a bottom map of hungry, little known prospects can be packed.

There will have to be some quality struggle on the bottom map to attract fans who have not been captivated by the old Mayweather days by Shakur’s retro style. Theofimo has not maintained its popularity since his big win over Vasily Lomachenko on October 17, 2020.

Lopez has done very little with his career since the 12 round and fought only seven times in five years. Teo has not had any risky fights yet and has ignored 140 pounds of exclamations from the top 140-pound contenders.

In 2021, Teo against George Kambosos Jr. Lost and in 2024 had a second defeat against Maine Ortiz. Since Theofimo’s close call against Ortiz, he has supported against a risky opposition and chose to defend against Steve Claggett and Arnold Barboza Jr.