Teofimo Lopez Lets X Decide His Next Fight: Stevenson Emerges as the Clear Fan Favorite

Teofimo Lopez wants his fans on X to decide who he should fight between Richardson Hitchins and Shakur Stevenson.

The Fans Choose Stevenson

The X users appear to be leaning toward Teo fighting Shakur, likely due to the recent back-and-forth between the two fighters on social media.

Shakur (24-0, 11 KOs) is coming off a big win over William Zepeda on July 12th, and his popularity is on the up after that win. It wasn’t a spectacular win, but compared to how he fights typically, it was exciting. People are talking more about Stevenson than Hitchins. That should convince Lopez to fight Shakur if he’s serious about fans choosing his next opponent.

Fans would like to see Lopez fight Hitchins and Shakur back to back, but that’s too much to hope for. Teofimo has been very selective since his one big career win over Vasily Lomachenko in 2020. The closest thing that Lopez has gotten to a risky fight since then was against Josh Taylor, who was washed by the time they fought.

The Real Decider: Turki Alalshikh

The ultimate decider will be which fight with Turki Alalshikh will be willing to pay the most for. If he offers Teofimo $15-20 million to fight Hitchins, you can bet he’ll take that fight. It’s doubtful that he will because Hitchins is only known by hardcore boxing fans, and he has a small number of followers on social media compared to Shakur.

Hitchins has the IBF light welterweight title to argue his case for a fight against WBO champion Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs). It would be a two-belt unification fight if they mix it.

Hitchins’ Title Not Enough

Unifications have lost meaning in this era, as the divisions are watered down, and fans don’t take much notice of them. What’s more critical is popularity. That’s where Shakur has a big edge over Hitchins, who hasn’t beaten enough names to be in a good position to lure Teofimo.

What Hitchins should do is raise his profile by fighting Gary Antuanne Russell, Subriel Matias, and Alberto Puello. Once Richardson goes through those three, fans will be pushing for Teofimo to fight him.