Back in July, Conor Benn and Shakur Stevenson sat side by side on The Ariel Helwani Show and agreed they would like to fight one another. There was also the usual back-and-forth between two fighters sizing each other up and laying out predictions on what would happen if they did meet.
For that to materialise, however, Benn must shed weight and return to welterweight, where he is being lined up for a shot at the winner of the rumoured WBC title fight between Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia in February.
Stevenson’s future is far more certain: go to New York’s Madison Square Garden on January 31 and beat WBO super-lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez. Should he succeed, he will become a four-weight world champion in just over five years.
Lopez starts as the slight underdog in his fourth title defence, but such is their pedigree and ring IQ that it’s easy to make a case for either man to win. It may not be an edge-of-the-seat, toe-to-toe banger, but it will be a compelling spectacle with the boxing world fixated on it.
Benn, meanwhile, restored some pride and restarted his career with victory over Chris Eubank Jnr in their rematch last month. The Matchroom fighter, like many other boxing personalities, is in Dubai this week for the latest IBA card headlined by Kubrat Pulev and Murat Gassiev.
Boxing King Media caught up with Benn and asked for his prediction on Lopez–Stevenson. “The Destroyer” replied:
“We’ll see what Shakur’s made of. I feel like I’d back Teo. Yeah.”
Lopez vs Stevenson caps off an unusually busy January for boxing, with Subriel Matias vs Dalton Smith, Liam Paro vs Paddy Donovan and Moses Itauma vs Jermaine Franklin among the highlights.
