Shakur Dominates Teofimo at Madison Square Garden

Shakur Dominates Teofimo at Madison Square Garden

Teofimo vs. Shakur . . . First names were all that were necessary when Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson fought at a sold-out Madison Square Garden on Saturday night for Teofimo’s Ring and WBO 140-pound titles. Shakur dominated from start to finish en route to a 119-109, 119-109, 119-109 triumph. But it was hard to know how much of that was attributable to Shakur fighting brilliantly and how much to a mediocre effort on Teofimo’s part.

Five years ago, Lopez (now 22-2, 13 KOs) seemed destined to be one of a handful of fighters who would carry boxing into the future. He’d decisioned Vasyl Lomachenko to claim the WBA, WBO, and IBF lightweight titles and was only 23 years old. But in his next outing, he lost a decision to George Kambosos.

Since then, Lopez has run hot and cold. He won six consecutive fights and looked good against Josh Taylor and Arnold Barboza, but struggled against Pedro Campa, Sandor Martin, Jamaine Ortiz, and Steve Claggett. Putting those opponents in further perspective, Taylor has had three fights in the last four years and lost all of them, while Barboza hasn’t fought since losing to Lopez.

On top of that, personal problems always seem to be plaguing Lopez.

“Teofimo sometimes acts like he has a screw loose,” Bob Arum (who has promotional rights to Lopez) says. “I like the kid and I get along with him personally. But I can’t figure him out, and he makes no logical sense. Dealing with Teofimo is like dealing with Alice in Wonderland.”

Like Lopez, Stevenson (now 25-0 with 11 KOs) is 28 years old. He had won belts at 126, 130, and 135 pounds and is one of the most technically-proficient boxers in the world today. But prior to facing Teofimo, he’d been matched mostly against opponents who were slow and didn’t have much of a punch.

Shakur looked confident at the December 10 kick-off press conference for Lopez-Stevenson while Teofimo looked like a guy who was playing a role. The fear then was that Teofimo might just go through the motions on fight night. But at the final pre-fight press conference two days before the bout, he seemed more confident and composed.

Stevenson was a 3-to-1 betting favorite. The general feeling was that he’d be at his best while Lopez wouldn’t; that Shakur is in his prime while Teofimo should be but might have passed it.

“It’s all about execution,” Shakur said. “Who comes in on their A game, who is focused and willing to do whatever it takes to win the fight. I am going to be a lot faster and stronger, a lot better than he thinks. He makes a lot of mistakes and I see a lot of holes in his game. I am better than him.”

The event was styled as “The Ring 6” and promoted by Matchroom in conjunction with The Ring, Sela, and Top Rank (which had promotional rights to Lopez as well as Keyshawn Davis and Bruce Carrington, who were also on the card). The sell-out crowd was proof that New York is still a fight town when fans are given fights they want.

The undercard was a mixed bag.

The opening bout matched Ziyad Almaayouf of Saudi Arabia against Kevin Castillo. Almaayouf has been a presence on Saudi-backed cards like Joshua-Ngannou, Usyk-Joshua II, Usyk-Dubois I, and Crawford-Madrimov. His fights are made for him to win. Castillo was winless in three bouts dating back to 2022. And the five fighters he’d beaten in his career have 229 loses between them. Almaayouf was a 12-to-1 betting favorite.

Almaayouf dropped Castillo in round one and everything seemed to be going according to plan. Then Castillo realized that Almaayouf isn’t all that good and picked up the pace. There was honest scoring. Castillo won a 78-73, 77-74, 77-74 decision.

Carlos Adames vs. Austin Williams for Adames’ WBC middleweight belt had shaped up as the most interesting undercard fight of the evening. But one day before the scheduled bout, Adames was taken to the hospital, suffering from dehydration. Junior-middleweight Wendy Toussaint was brought in as a last-minute replacement. And what had been expected to be a wonderful fight morphed into a bad one. Toussaint, a school bus driver, boxed to survive and lost nine of ten rounds to Williams on all three judges’ scorecards.

The heavyweights were next up – Jarrell Miller vs. Kingsley Ibeh. Miller hadn’t won since knocking out 43-year-old Lucas Brown 34 months ago. At the final pre-fight press conference, he spoke of being in better shape for Ibeh than he had been for recent fights and promised his abs would tell the tale. But the following day at the weigh-in, Jarrell’s abs were nowhere to be found. He tipped the scale at 317.6 pounds (the ninth fight in a row that he’d topped the 300-pound mark. Ibeh weighed in at 288 and was a 5-to-1 underdog.

Fighting Jarrell is like fighting a slow-moving avalanche. Against Ibeh, he fought like a man who hadn’t trained very hard, lumbered forward without much intensity, threw wind-up body punches with an occasional overhand right (no jabs) mixed in, and lay his 317.6 pounds on Ibeh whenever they clinched. Ibeh won the first two rounds and then began to wear down. He was too tired to throw much of consequence after that. By the end of the fight, both men were fighting on fumes. Two of the judges were on the mark with 97-93 scorecards in favor of Miller. Inexplicably, Kevin Morgan scored the bout 96-94 for Ibeh.

At the final pre-fight press conference, Miller had talked about some of the twists and turns in his career and said, “Sometimes I wonder if God has a cruel sense of humor when it comes to me.”

Those remarks were prophetic.

The highpoint of Miller-Ibeh came in round two when several punches loosened Jarrell’s toupee, which he took off and threw into the crowd after the round ended. Asked about the incident by Chris Mannix of DAZN following the fight, Jarrell explained, “I got to my mumma’s house and she had some shampoo under her table and I shampooed with it and it was like ammonia and bleach, I lost my hair like two days ago. So I called my manager and told him to get me one of those manes and Ibeh knocked that shit off. I felt like a breeze. I looked up at the camera and it was, ‘Oh, s#@*!'”

It was boxing’s most memorable “hair moment” since Paulie Malignaggi fought Lovemore N’dou in 2008. Malignaggi came into the ring that night with long braided hair extensions that were tied and theoretically secured behind his head. But he’d never sparred with them to see what might happen during a fight. The extensions came loose in round one. Despite repeated efforts by his corner to tape them, they obscured Paulie’s vision throughout the bout. Finally, after round eight, cutman Danny Milano took a scissors and cut them off, making it the first time in boxing history that a combatant was given a haircut between rounds of a world championship fight.

Bruce Carrington vs Carlos Castro for the vacant WBC featherweight title was the fourth fight on the MSG card. Castro (a 7-to-1 underdog) had lost his three previous step-up fights and figured to lose this one too. He gave it his best shot and hurt Carrington with a right hand behind the ear that had Bruce holding on in round four. But Carrington regained the initiative and ended matters at 1:29 of round nine with a devastating five-punch combination that began with an immobilizing overhand right.

That was followed by Keyshawn Davis vs Jamaine Ortiz. Davis last fought at MSG on February 14, 2025, knocking out Denis Berinchyk to claim the WBO 135-pound title (which he proceeded to lose on the scales when he missed weight for a fight against Edwin De los Santos last June). Ortiz was good enough to give Davis (a 5-to-1 favorite) some rounds but that was all. Jamaine mugged, gestured, bent the rules from time to time, and fought like a man trying to con his way through a fight (which rarely works in boxing). KO 12.

Then it was time for the main event.

At the kick-off press conference, Lopez had said, “Every fight is a different version of me. I love it because even the people don’t know what they are going to get from me. That’s the beauty of it. He [Stevenson] is not going to know until we fight.”

What the people and Shakur got from Lopez was a poor showing. Teofimo, accompanied by five breakdancers, wowed the crowd with a spectacularly-choreographed ring entrance. But the breakdancers couldn’t help him once the bell for round one rang.

Lopez started out as the more aggressive fighter but couldn’t land anything. Stevenson didn’t run. He stayed in front of Teofimo, dictating pace, range, and just about everything else. Before long, Lopez was overreaching with his jab, missing wildly with power punches, walking into shots, and a thoroughly frustrated fighter. His fight plan was in tatters. He had no Plan B. And he fought like a fighter who seemed resigned to losing.

As the fight progressed, a cut that Shakur opened on Teofimo’s left eyelid in round six worsened and the area around both eyes became bruised and swollen. Stevenson played it safe and never went all out to close the show with a knockout. But he did what he had to do. And Lopez didn’t. According to CompuBox, Teofimo landed five or fewer punches in seven of the twelve rounds. All three judges scored the bout 119-109 in Shakur’s favor.

“I felt good,” Stevenson said afterward. I picked him apart. I did what I was supposed to do. This is the art of boxing, hit and don’t get hit.”

Shakur now has a “signature” victory.

And a final thought on Saturday night’s event. It stretched on for far too long. There were unconscionably long delays between fights. Pockets of empty seats in the once-packed arena showed that hundreds of fans left before Teofimo vs. Shakur began. The bell for round one of the main event didn’t ring until 12:15 AM.

The NFL and NBA wouldn’t start a big event after midnight. Neither should boxing.

*         *         *

On a different subject . . .

On December 16, Terence Crawford announced on social media that he’s retiring from boxing.

Retirements by elite fighters seldom last – especially when the fighter is on top and can make tens of millions of dollars by fighting again. But sometimes a fighter of unique skill and character like Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko, or Andre Ward proves to be an exception to the rule.

I don’t know Terence Crawford personally. But I’ve always felt that he has something special inside. One source says he would have fought a rematch against Canelo if the numbers were right but that the purses offered were significantly less than for their first encounter. Be that as it may; I’ll go out on a limb and say that I think Crawford will stay retired. If he does, more power to him.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – is available at https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MLXL6UHY8O9E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NZgHyDuy4gb1i6YPJ_9vmAMw3oLJh1d9Sxs-G8xJoJY.67ftevZ4BImTjJoSlE9uPWJz-j5i5wJGtSrlNDVZw-g&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+most+honest+sport+hauser&qid=1750773774&sprefix=the+most+honest+sport+hauser%2Caps%2C65&sr=8-1

In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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