Jamaine Ortiz is picking Shakur Stevenson to defeat Teofimo Lopez in a low-action fight on January 31st, 2026.
Expect Low Punch Output
Ortiz doesn’t see many punches thrown by Shakur and Loez, as it’ll be a lot of movement without fighting. For Shakur, that’s typical. He blocks, moves to avoid, and looks to win rounds based on a few landed shots.
Turki Alalshikh needs to remind Teofimo and Shakur in advance about his no-Tom-and-Jerry mandate, since he’s financing this fight. It’s going to be shown on DAZN PPV. He doesn’t need a repeat of the low-action May 2 Times Square card.
We saw that perfectly in his fights against William Zepeda and Edwin De Los Santos. Not much action on Shakur’s part, but still banking rounds on three or four landed punches.
The light welterweight contender Jamaine fought Teofimo (22-1, 13 KOs) last year in February 2024 and gave him massive problems with his in-and-out movement, speedy combinations throughout their bout.
“I think Shakur will win. I don’t think it’ll be a close fight. I don’t see a lot of action,” said Jamaine Ortiz to MillCity Boxing, predicting that Shakur Stevenson will defeat Teofimo Lopez.
Why Fans Might Boo
If Teofimo fights the way he did against Arnold Barboza Jr., moving and clowning, there won’t be much action in the fight. He did next to nothing in that fight and landed just enough shots to win. It was so ugly to watch. Lopez fought like he was copying Stevenson’s style, but it was an imperfect copy. He took all the worst elements of Shakur’s game and made them look clumsy.
Shakur’s Winning Formula
“He’ll do in and out, doing things that Teo doesn’t like. He has longer arms and will keep him at bay,” said Jamaine about Stevenson.
“Teofimo does a lot of play movement without his hands, without doing a lot of action. So, he’s going to make it seem like he’s doing something without doing anything.
“I don’t see the Shakur that fought Zepeda being there in the pocket and fighting. I don’t see that as much, maybe a glimpse or two,” said Ortiz.
It wouldn’t be the Shakur that fought Zepeda because he took too much punishment in that fight, especially to the body. That fight last July showed that Stevenson can’t fight in the pocket against good fighters because he doesn’t have the power or offense.
Jamaine has better hand speed, more mobility, and a superior combination puncher than Shakur. The things that he did against Lopez, Stevenson will be trying, but at a lesser pace. So, Teofimo will do better against him than he did against Jamaine.
Many fans believed that Jamaine deserved the victory, but the judges gave it to the A-side, Teofimo by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 117-111.
I watched the fight at ringside and had Ortiz winning 9-3. He dominated the entire fight. The only rounds that Teofimo appeared to edge were the later ones in which he landed a few hard shots, but was still outworked and outfought.
The scoring of the fight showed how difficult it is for the less popular B-side fighters to defeat a star because Lopez appeared to lose, and it wasn’t close.
Last Updated on 12/05/2025
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