Guided by his grandfather, Wali Moses, and head coach Kay Koroma, Stevenson, 138.5 lbs., delivered a southpaw masterclass based on a “make him miss, make him pay” philosophy. He neutralized Lopez using deft footwork and sharp counters, ranging from stiff jabs to stinging right hooks and overhand lefts. Lopez, 139.5 lbs., soon resorted to throwing wild swings, leaving himself even more susceptible to the faster challenger’s pinpoint accuracy.
Trailing on the scorecards by the midway point, and with his left eye swollen and bleeding, Lopez finally increased his punch output in the later rounds, having a modicum of success targeting his adversary’s body. No matter what Lopez tried, though, Newark, New Jersey’s Stevenson, now based out of Houston, TX, remained in control.
All three judges agreed on a tally of 119-109 for Stevenson, now 25-0 (11 KOs). Punchstat numbers also favored Stevenson by a wide margin, 165-72 in punches landed. Suffering a second loss at the Garden, Lopez, the two-division world champion, fell to 22-2 (13 KOs).
“I picked him apart, and I did what I was supposed to do,” said Stevenson. “This is the art of boxing, hit and don’t get hit. I knew my jab was going to kill him. I told everybody before the fight, ‘They’re going to say I have the best jab in boxing after this fight,’ because I saw where he was weak at and I capitalized off of it.”
During Stevenson’s post-fight interview, Britain’s Conor Benn stepped through the ropes and a verbal altercation ensued between the two regarding a potential clash. Should that fight occur, and it would be a massive sell in the UK, expect Stevenson to have just as easy a time as he had against Lopez.
