WBC LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE VACANT FOLLOWING SHAKUR STEVENSON'S WIN AT 140

└Shakur Stevenson celebrates victory

Shakur Stevenson’s championship win at junior welterweight means he no longer has his world title at lightweight.

Stevenson dominated Teofimo Lopez this past weekend to capture the WBO title and the lineal and Ring Magazine championships at 140lbs, making him a four-division titleholder after reigns at 126, 130 and 135.

Stevenson entered the Lopez bout as the WBC lightweight titleholder, and he’d said that he had not decided whether he would remain at junior welterweight or return to 135 to defend there.

But the WBC’s latest downloadable monthly ratings update, released on February 3, shows the WBC lightweight title as vacant. As of February 4, so does the lightweight ratings section on WBC's website. 

Meanwhile, interim titleholder Jadier Herrera, who won that vacant secondary belt in January with a stoppage of Ricardo Nunez, has not been upgraded.

Nunez had previously been rated No. 1 by the WBC at 135lbs while Herrera was No. 3. The results of their match left a vacancy, and that allowed William Zepeda to move up from No. 2 to No. 1. 

Zepeda has been in this position before, dating back to fall 2024, before he beat Tevin Farmer in their first fight to win the WBC’s interim belt. Zepeda went on to beat Farmer in their rematch and then lost a clear decision to Stevenson last July.

Zepeda is followed in the WBC’s ratings at 135lbs by Lamont Roach Jnr, Andy Cruz, Dzmitry Asanau, Sam Noakes, Justin Pauldo, Nunez, Joe Cordina, Shu Utsuki, Bakhodur Usmonov, Lucas Bahdi, Jordan White, Alan Abel Chaves, Armando Rabi and Albert Bell.

- David Greisman

TERENCE CRAWFORD MOCKED TEÓFIMO LOPEZ & HIS DAD AFTER LOPEZ LOSS TO.SHAKUR STEVENSON

STEVEN BRANSCOMBE-IMAGN IMAGES

Terence Crawford had a bit of fun with Teofimo Lopez after his loss.

Last week, Lopez told us that he wanted to fight Crawford after his fight against Shakur Stevenson.

“He ain’t retired, man. He ain’t retired. He’ll come back, especially after what I do to his little bro. I want you, Crawford, 160, 168, I’ll move up.”

On Friday, Crawford and Lopez’s dad got into it at the final weigh-ins.

After Lopez’s loss to Stevenson on Saturday night, Crawford hopped in the ring and mocked both Lopez and his father by hitting a Fortnite emote in their faces.

- JORGE ALONSO

TEOFIMO VS. SHAKUR 🔥 JANUARY 31 🔥 NEW YORK CITY

 

CURRENT RING WORLD CHAMPIONS

 

All Current Ring Magazine World Champions:

🥊 Oleksandr Usyk

👑 Ring Heavyweight Champion

🥊 Jai Opetaia

👑 Ring Cruiserweight Champion

🥊 Dmitry Bivol

👑 Ring Light-Heavyweight Champion

🥊 Terence Crawford

👑 Ring Super-Middleweight Champion

🥊 Shadasia Green

👑 Ring Super-Middleweight Champion

🥊 Lauren Price

👑 Ring Welterweight Champion

🥊 Teofimo Lopez

👑 Ring Super-Lightweight Champion

🥊 Katie Taylor

👑 Ring Super-Lightweight Champion

🥊 Alycia Baumgardner

👑 Ring Super-Featherweight Champion

🥊 Amanda Serrano

👑 Ring Featherweight Champion

🥊 Naoya Inoue

👑 Ring Super-Bantamweight Champion

🥊 Ellie Scotney

👑 Ring Super-Bantamweight Champion

🥊 Dina Thorslund

👑 Ring Bantamweight Champion

🥊 Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez

👑 Ring Super-Flyweight Champion

🥊 Mizuki Hiruta

👑 Ring Super-Flyweight Champion

🥊 Gabriela Fundora

👑 Ring Flyweight Champion

🥊 Oscar Collazo

👑 Ring Strawweight Champion

SHAKUR STEVENSON VS. TEOFIMO FLOPEZ COMING LATE.JANUARY 2026

 

TEOFIMO LOPEZ DECLARES WAR ON BOXING'S PAST WITH MULTI-OPPONENT FIGHT

Teofimo Lopez has stunned the boxing world by declaring his willingness to fight three or four opponents in one night on a YouTuber-style event.

The WBO super lightweight champion revealed his plans in recent comments that suggest a dramatic shift in his career trajectory.

Instead of chasing the best in boxing, Lopez appears set to follow the crossover path made infamous by Jake Paul and now endorsed by Gervonta Davis.

The stunning move sees Lopez declaring war on the conventional boxing process.

Lopez eyes multi-fight gimmick

Lopez, 28, insists he is serious about competing on a non-traditional card where spectacle takes precedence over sporting merit.

Such comments have left fans questioning why another legitimate world champion would risk his reputation for financial gain.

The reaction comes just days after Davis, holder of the WBA lightweight title, agreed to face Jake Paul on Netflix this November in Atlanta.

By taking that bout, Davis effectively surrendered his WBA crown and placed himself firmly in the entertainment lane rather than the sporting one.

Lopez now seems intent on joining him.

What it means for boxing

The direction is clear: high-profile champions are starting to value the short-term financial incentives of crossover events over the long-term prestige of the professional game.

For Lopez, who shocked Vasiliy Lomachenko and once promised to dominate multiple divisions, such a move represents a sharp departure from legacy-building.

World Boxing News understands Lopez still has obligations as WBO champion, but any move into circus boxing could create significant repercussions for the sanctioning body and its rankings.

Fans have already begun to question whether the sport is spiraling into an era where belts mean less than pay-per-view numbers.

Many saw Lopez and Davis as torchbearers for boxing’s future. Their flirtation with circus-style shows signals a dangerous precedent: champions looking beyond the sport for paydays.

With Davis versus Paul already set, and Lopez actively calling for sideshow-style events, boxing is edging closer to an identity crisis.

The legacy of fighters who opt for this route will ultimately be judged not by their talent but by the choices they made when real fights were available.

- Phil Jay

SOURCES: TEOFIMO LOPEZ, SUBRIEL MATIAS

Teofimo Lopez and Subriel Matias are finalizing a deal for a March 15 fight for Lopez's WBO junior welterweight title, sources told ESPN on Monday.

The 140-pound title fight -- Lopez's third defense -- will headline Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ PPV. There's no location set but the bout will take place in the U.S.

Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) is ESPN's No. 1 junior welterweight. The former undisputed lightweight champion is coming off a June decision victory over Canadian-level fighter Steve Claggett. Before that, Lopez struggled in a decision win over Jamaine Ortiz in February.

The 27-year-old Brooklyn, New York, native won the title in dominant fashion from Josh Taylor in June 2023. Lopez's best win came in October 2020 when he outpointed future Hall of Famer Vasiliy Lomachenko for the lightweight championship.

Matias (21-2, 21 KOs) is ESPN's No. 8 boxer at 140 pounds. He lost his IBF junior welterweight title to Liam Paro in June in a major upset in Puerto Rico, where he was born and still resides.

The 32-year-old volume puncher is one of the sport's top action fighters. Matias rebounded from his second loss with a second-round TKO of career opponent Roberto Ramirez in November. Matias avenged his previous loss with a ninth-round TKO of Petros Ananyan in January 2022.

Matias won the IBF title with a fifth-round TKO of Jeremias Ponce in February 2023 and stopped Shohjahon Ergashev in Round 5 later that year in his lone successful defense.

- Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider

TEOFIMO LOPEZ FINALLY REVEALS WHAT STARTED TERENCE CRAWFORD RINGSIDE SCUFFLE: "FIGHT ME NOW"

Teofimo Lopez and Terence Crawford came face-to-face this past weekend after a back and forth through the media.

Crawford is fresh off a world title win in his fourth division, super-welterweight, and is chasing down a fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez that would require jumping up twice more to 168 pounds.

Lopez has urged the pound-for-pound star to stay at 154, saying he will leave the 140 ranks where he is currently world champion for that fight.

The pair were both in attendance for a portion of the Canelo-Edgar Berlanga fight card in Las Vegas and crossed paths. Speaking to Broadway Joel, Lopez revealed all on the coming together.

“Long story short, I was going to ringside and I thought someone was staring at me. It was Crawford. He looked at me, I looked at him. He’s trying to stare me down, I stare at him and said listen, when we gonna fight? He’s acting like he can’t hear me, pulls to the side then we just talk, talk, talk. He goes to my father, he says, ‘don’t you ever touch me again, next time you touch me I’mma slap you.’ My father goes and responds, ‘then slap me now.’ I said, ‘when we gonna fight?’ We had a little scuffle.

My whole thing is I want to fight the best. If he’s the best, let’s make the fight happen. He goes over there, trying to poke my face, smack his hand down. He wanted to fight me there. You scared I’m gonna beat you in front of the whole world? Is that why? We’ll see what they do next.”

Crawford and his team have previously ruled out a fight with the 27-year-old, with coach Brian ‘BoMac’ Mcintyre said the match-up is absolutely ‘not competitive’ and that the only rewarding part would be seeing his man knock Lopez out.

Whether or not this drama changes that remains to be seen

TEOFIMO LOPEZ HAS NO DOUBT WHO WINS CANELO-CRAWFORD FIGHT: "IT'S A MONEY GRAB"

Image credit: PBC/Showtime

 Super-lightweight WBO champion Teofimo Lopez has made his prediction ahead of a potential fight between Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez and Terence Crawford.

Crawford has been chasing a fight against the current super-middleweight champion ever since he put in a career defining performance against Errol Spence Jr last year.

Although the Mexican was originally dismissive of the match-up, he has recently admitted he would be open to the fight if the money was right. With Saudi Arabia’s boxing matchmaker Turki Alalshikh having it on his wish list, Canelo might just get what he wants.

Speaking to FightHype about the clash, Lopez believes the three weight class disparity will prove too much come fight night.

“Crawford-Canelo, great matchup, great fight, what else can I say? If those guys want to make that fight happen, you’ve got the face of boxing against a guy who’s fighting for legacy. Both of them are really true champions, hall of famers – let the best man win.

I think Canelo is just too big for him. He’s too big, realistically. Too big, too strong and used to that weight class, so you can be a boxer and all those things but it is what it is.

Canelo is still the face of boxing and the guy everyone wants to fight, Crawfod wouldn’t want the fight if Canelo wasn’t the face of boxing. It’s a money grab, it’s a money fight.”

Lopez has a ready made replacement for Crawford if the Canelo fight doesn’t materialise – himself. The former undisputed lightweight champion has called out ‘Bud’ for a fight next year.

- Toby Morgan 

TEOFIMO LOPEZ UPSETS JOSH TAYLOR TO WIN THE SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE

 

JOSH TAYLOR VS. TEOFIMO LOPEZ | FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS | WBO SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

TEOFIMO REACTS AFTER BEATING JOSH TAYLOR | WBO SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

JOSH TAYLOR: TEOFIMO LOPEZ WANTS TO KILL ME BUT I WILL RETIRE HIM IN HIS OWN BACKYARD

Josh Taylor: Teofimo Lopez wants to kill me but I will retire him in his own backyard

Scotsman Taylor is on a mission to emulate the late, great Ken Buchanan by winning at Madison Square Garden.

Josh Taylor is no stranger to a factious pre-fight atmosphere but the Scotsman’s experience for the most important fight of his career has been more than attritional because his opponent wants to kill him.

TEOFIMO VS. PEDRO CAMPA | JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT | 13 SATURDAY

 

POST FIGHT | TOMBOSOS | TEOFIMO DELUSIONAL

ROBERTO GARCIA TALKS TEOFIMO LOPEZ

BOB ARUM & TEOFIMO LOPEZ SR. BOTH AGREE LOPEZ VS. LOMA 2 IS NETX

TOP 5 TEOFIMO LOPEZ KNOCKOUTS

EDDIE HEARN RESPONDS TO JOHN FURY INTERVIEW ON AJ-FURY | WANTS TEOFIMO LOPEZ NEXT FOR DEVIN HANEY