Stevenson muted Lopez’s offensive attack by establishing a stiff jab, winning 11 rounds to one across the scorecards. CompuBox credited Stevenson with landing 165 punches, including a career-high 105 jabs. Lopez only offered 72 punches back, with 59 of them being to Stevenson’s body.

“We wanted to push the pace on Lopez so that we didn't really have to fight. We did our job,” Stevenson trainer Wali Moses told FightHub TV after the fight.

“Once I saw that Lopez couldn't handle our hand speed, I felt really comfortable with that. I felt that we could take risks and do more. As the fight went on it seemed that it just got better. We were hoping Lopez's pace would slow down, and it did to a point. We give him a lot of respect. He was a formidable opponent. Shakur outscored him, and that was the plan, to stay ahead on the scorecards.”

Stevenson muted Lopez’s offensive attack by establishing a stiff jab, winning 11 rounds to one across the scorecards. CompuBox credited Stevenson with landing 165 punches, including a career-high 105 jabs. Lopez only offered 72 punches back, with 59 of them being to Stevenson’s body.

“We wanted to push the pace on Lopez so that we didn't really have to fight. We did our job,” Stevenson trainer Wali Moses told FightHub TV after the fight.

“Once I saw that Lopez couldn't handle our hand speed, I felt really comfortable with that. I felt that we could take risks and do more. As the fight went on it seemed that it just got better. We were hoping Lopez's pace would slow down, and it did to a point. We give him a lot of respect. He was a formidable opponent. Shakur outscored him, and that was the plan, to stay ahead on the scorecards.” 

Moses said Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) was tremendously successful because Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) didn't show enough versatility.

“Teo felt the difference [with Stevenson's power] and wasn't aggressive and didn't try a lot of stuff,” said Moses. “A lot of the stuff that he did, we were familiar with and had a game plan for it. Lopez’s problem was that he didn't bring anything different to the ring that we hadn't seen in the past. When you prepare for a fight like this, you have to have another game plan. He only had one plan. He thought that he was faster than us and that Shakur was slow. So that's where he made his biggest mistake.” With the career-best win, Stevenson became The Ring and WBO junior welterweight champion and a four-division titleholder.

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.