Today was the opening press conference for the upcoming 140 lb title defense between Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson on January 31. After some of the suits took their turns speaking on the event, we eventually
got to hear a little from the fighters themselves, starting with Shakur.
“I think that he did some great things against [his past opponents]. I seen a lot of weakness is his game, too,” Shakur said of Teofimo. “I didn’t see Lomachenko throw no punches for six rounds.
“I will be 100x better on fight night against Teofimo Lopez than I was against Zepeda, 1000x better, faster, sharper, stronger and mentally more on point and I can’t wait…A lot of his weaknesses is in his mental. I think it’s more mental than anything and I’m going to expose it.
“I want to show the world that I’m the best. After this fight I want to be considered top five pound-for-pound in the sport and I can’t wait to show it. I think he just don’t realize how good I am. I think come fight night he’s going to realize that I’m going to take it to another level that he hasn’t seen before so if he’s expecting the Lomachenko, the Josh Taylor fight to happen, it won’t be that type of fight.”
Teofimo Lopez was then addressed with some pointed questions from Chris Mannix where he shared his thoughts on the upcoming title defense, despite not getting the crowd reception he was hoping for.
“I’m happy. I’m grateful, thankful, blessed, and you know, I’m going to have Shakur jigga-ma,” Lopez began.
“You said you’re going to do what?” Stevenson responded.
“Jigga-ma balls,” Lopez said, as his father basked in satisfaction of Shakur walking straight into that trap. Score one for Team Lopez, I suppose.
“I mean come on, now” Teofimo continued. “He’s saying this, he’s saying that, the third, but in reality this guy is the best and we’re here to face the best. And that’s just what it is, forget the rest…We’re defying the odds, we’re against all odds, and to Draft Kings and to all the betting odds out there, make sure you keep the odds highly favored in Shakur. I got a lot of people that are starving and they need to make their money.”
Turki Alalshikh would then dial up the presser on the phone in order to share some words on the event, with Mannix holding the speakerphone to the microphone. Here, Alalshikh would essentially also express a bit of displeasure with the lack of energy for the press conference while emphasizing the importance of this fight, with the winner to get an even bigger fight afterwards.
“You need to know the result of of this fight, in May there is big fight,” Alalshikh said to the crowd (or lackthereof). “If it is Shakur, there is big fight for Shakur. And if it’s Temolifo, it’s big fight for [him]. This is important fight…This fight is the first step of crazy map of boxing, next year and the beginning of 2017. This is not easy fight. Thank you.”
You can watch the full opening press conference in the video link at the top.
