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Philippines, 24 Feb 2026 |
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Teofimo vs Shakur Fight Analysis By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Sat, 31 Jan 2026  Tomorrow night, Saturday, January 31, 2026 in New York’s Madison Square Garden, two division and current WBO Jr welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez (22-1, 13KOs) defends his title (140lbs) against 3 division champion and current WBC lightweight champion (135lbs) Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11KOs) in what is arguably the first “Big fight” of 2026. This “Big Fight” to many is actually a surprise that it’s happening. Both champions publicly called out other high-profile champions to fight. Teofimo wanted to fight undefeated unified welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis before he vacated his titles to move to the junior middleweight division. Shakur wanted a fight with arguably one the faces of boxing, due to his popularity, WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis to a high profile fight. There was no apparent interest from “Tank” to fight Shakur as there was negotiations for “Tank” to rematch with Lamont Roach whom he fought to a controversial draw last March 2025 which never materialized. Instead, “Tank” signed to fight actor, youtuber, and now professional fighter Heavyweight Jake Paul in high profile match that was to be streamed on Netflix. Paul vs “Tank” was cancelled due to legal problems “Tank” is currently dealing with outside of the sport of boxing. It remains to be seen if Tank will return to boxing when he resolves his legal issues as he has talked about retirement this past year. Therefore, a signed Teofimo vs Shakur fight really came a surprise to this writer from what was initially a banter between two world champion fighters which happens a lot in boxing. Most high profile fighters challenge each other to stay relevant on social media and tease the fans to potential fight, but never actually fight each other. There are countless examples of fighters who do that. But in the case of Teofimo vs Shakur this was a surprise and a different case. A lot is at stake for both fighters. Shakur, if he wins, will win his 4th world title in another division which puts him star category of fighters such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roy Jones, Pernell Whitaker, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez, and Terrence Crawford. Whoever wins will have future multimillion dollar paydays with other big name fighters and will ascend on boxing’s mythical “Pound for Pound” list as one of the best boxers in all of boxing. The loser will have to rebuild his career and take short money for future fights. On Saturday night what does Shakur have to do to earn the victory against Teofimo? Shakur, in this writer’s opinion, is the more naturally talented fighter with speed and good ring IQ. He no doubt has trained hard for this fight. He must box Teofimo but not run from him. He must land punches in bunches and use good defense. He must land first and stay in the center of the ring. He must show Teofimo he is not overly concerned with Teofimo as the bigger fighter on paper (Teofimo’s 140lbs to Shakur’s 135lbs). Teofimo has 13 knockouts in 23 professional fights compared to Shakur’s 11 knockouts in 24 professional fights. The punching power in this writer’s opinion between both fighters appears to be equal. It does appear (for this training camp) Shakur has been doing some weight training to improve his punching power. If the extra weight (going from 135lbs to 140lbs) has made Shakur stronger he must earn Teofimo’s respect the first time he hits him. Shakur must score first and use good movement in the ring. He must make it a frustrating fight for Teofimo who no doubt will be looking for a big punch to try and hurt Shakur to possibly knock him out. What must Teofimo do to defeat Shakur? Teofimo likely cannot match Shakur in speed. He must therefore time Shakur and telegraph him when he is about to throw his punches. Teofimo must not go head hunting but focus on landing many shots to Shakur’s body. If Teofimo can land good body shots to Shakur that will neutralize his speed and make the fight more even and increase his chances of victory. Teofimo must try to get Shakur against the ropes and try to make the fight a brawl. By making the fight a brawl that may cause Teofimo to abandon his game plan and make mistakes which could cause Shakur to loosen his defense. Teofimo must be in shape to apply constant pressure to on Shakur if need be, for the entire 12 rounds in hopes of outworking Shakur or possible stopping Shakur with a combination of punches. This writer picks Shakur Stevenson to stop Teofimo Lopez by KO in the 8th round in a spectacular fight. Boxing Notes Last Saturday night IBF lightweight champion defeated challenger Andy Cruz to retain his title in a spectacular fight! According to boxing Compustats, “Ray Muratalla landed 175 of 611 (29 percent) punches and Andy Cruz landed 176 of 537 (33 percent). One of the 3 official Judges scored the fight a draw. At the end of the fight Muratalla had 2 black eyes! Andy Cruz looked untouched. It was a close fight, but This Writer scored the fight for Andy Cruz. Promoter Eddie Hearn suggested Cruz may drop down to the 130lbs division due to Cruz being a smaller man and not needing to “cut weight”. That would be ridiculous simply because Cruz could have easily been awarded the decision, Cruz showed after 7professional fights he is World Calibur material, and also the multimillion fights are in the lightweight (135lbs) division. Names such as “Tank” (if he returns to boxing), Shakur, Mason, Schofield, and now Muratalla. This Writer can’t wait to see Cruz return. This Writer predicts Andy Cruz will be champion in 2026 or 2027. ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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