It’s a bold statement, as Teofimo has fought Vasily Lomachenko and Jamaine Ortiz. Those were two skilled fighters with mobility, whom Teo triumphed over. He dealt with the mobility and hand speed of Jamaine quite well last year.
“I think Teo is a very dominant force, but I just feel the skills of Shakur Stevenson will overwhelm Teo. He’s never seen this type of action before yet,” said Zab Judah to MillCity Boxing, predicting that Shakur Stevenson will be too much for WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez.
The way the former two-division world champion Judah describes Shakur, he makes him sound like he’s a phenom. In reality, Stevenson is more of a blue-collar type of fighter who pecks and moves. He has never fought that way at the elite level.
When he does get knockouts, it’s against fighters that are fringe-level, like Josh Padley. For Stevenson to come out looking to blast Teo out on January 31st, it would be a mistake because he could run into a big shot and get hurt.
In the same interview, Judah was reminded about his previous prediction that Shakur will ‘stop Teo.’ Zab then confirmed he’d predicted that, saying, “Annihilation.”
“The fight is going to be a lot closer than we think. We’re just blabbing our mouth, running off what we think our professional opinion is,” said Judah.
A knockout would help Stevenson. He needs a win like that to create demand for bigger fights in 2026. Shakur said after his last fight against Zepeda that he’s not going to stand and brawl with his opponents again.
That comment suggests that he’s going to return to his amateur style of hit-and-not-get-hit approach. Fighting like that makes it less likely he’ll knock out Lopez.
