Teofimo Lopez says the reason he doesn’t want to fight lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson is because he saw how suicidal he was after a loss in 2015 at the National Golden Gloves in Las Vegas.
Lopez says Shakur wanted to go to the top of the hotel and “jump off”. Teofimo adds that he doesn’t want the “blood” on his hands if Shakur falls apart after losing to him and takes his own life.
Fans saw Shakur cry after his loss in the 2016 Olympic finals to Cubans Robey Ramirez. He was all broken up after that defeat. The judges weren’t in a position to give Shakur a win after he was outplayed and outplayed by a young Robeisy, who was on the attack throughout the fight.
That fight showed the blueprint for defeating Shakur: attacking him relentlessly, chasing him down and not letting him win rounds with his low output.
“I’m not trying to give that guy his first loss. I’ll let someone else take it,” Teofimo Lopez told the Come and Talk to Me channel on why he’s not interested in fighting Shakur Stevenson.
“I saw how Shakur lost in the amateurs. This one time in Vegas, National Golden Gloves 2015, Shakur lost to Ruben Villa, and then he wanted to go to the hotel roof and jump off. I’m not trying to have actual blood on my hands.”
Teofimo now fights at 140, and he’s big for that weight class. Making weight for Teofimo’s last fight against Steve Claggett on June 29, he appeared badly drained and performed poorly, struggling to beat the edge contender by a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight closer to the judges’ scores.
Shakur looks big for the 135-lb division, but his lack of power makes it nearly impossible for him to move up to 140 to fight the stronger punchers like Teofimo, Alberto Puello, Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela and Liam Paro. Those guys hit too hard and that will be tough for Shakur to handle.
Stevenson recently had hand surgery but is expected to defend his WBC lightweight title against William Zepeda in February. This will be a very tough fight for Shakur as Zepeda is a pressure fighter who can hit and has a high output. Additionally, Zepeda cuts off the ring well and walks through punches to land his powerful body shots. He is kryptonite for runners.
