Lopez Sr criticizes Son’s game plan after dominating Stevenson loss

Game Plan ignored

“Everything was right leading into the fight,” Lopez Sr. said SecondsOut.com. “The sparring sessions were what motivated me to this fight, that I was 100% sure we were going to win. For some reason the game plan my son didn’t do what I told him to do.”

He emphasized that the goal was to disrupt Stevenson’s rhythm early and prevent the kind of measured control that ultimately decided the scorecards.

“His rhythm was supposed to be different where we were supposed to stop Shakur from doing whatever Shakur does best,” he added before briefly giving credit to the winner. “Congratulations to him for winning, but that wasn’t my son in there.”

External pressure cited

Lopez Sr. also argued that advance discussions about Stevenson’s next assignment create a psychological disadvantage.

“I think probably the networks and everybody, the media, everything leading up to this fight is already talking about Shakur fighting in May,” he said. “So I think it probably affected him.”

He dismissed criticism about his absence from a press conference, denied speculation about his condition and said he was resting. According to Lopez Sr. the combined chatter affected his son’s focus.

Mental Warfare Claims

“My son is mentally easy to mess with and how are you going to fight a fight when everyone wants you to lose?” Lopez Sr. said. “It just seemed like all his powers weren’t there … His power wasn’t there. I was in shock.”

He went further and argued the tone of coverage crossed a line.

“There was not one person who spoke well of him. So it has to stop,” he said. “The average person can have an opinion, but when you have all the networks saying that my son is going to pinch his ass… it’s not right.”

Lopez was overwhelmed by a fighter who controlled distance, dictated pace and forced him into reactive stretches for long stretches of the match. At 27, Lopez still carries name recognition and offensive prowess, but repeated inconsistencies have narrowed his margin for error in divisions that reward stability.