Top Rank is giving their 21-year-old future stars, Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson a bigger platform.
Top Rank is making its ESPN pay-per-view debut a blockbuster card.
The fight is headlined by pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford defending his WBO welterweight world title against Amir Khan. Now, Top Rank is giving their 21-year-old future stars, Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson a bigger platform.
Each will make their PPV debut in co-feature bouts on ESPN PPV Saturday, April 20 at Madison Square Garden.
Stevenson meets 130-pound world title challenger Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz in a 10-round featherweight bout. Co-managed by former champion Andre Ward and entrepreneur James Prince, Stevenson is a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist.
Lopez, the consensus 2018 Prospect of the Year faces Edis Tatli in a 10-round battle. Tatli is a two-time European lightweight champion and former world title challenger.
“This terrific undercard accompanying the Crawford-Khan main event will be extremely entertaining and exciting,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez are two of the brightest young lights in boxing and are facing seasoned opponents in Diaz and Tatli.”
Leaders Of The New School
Lopez (12-0, 10 KOs) catapulted from prospect to contender in 2018 and early 2019. With a slew of sensational knockout victories over Mason Menard and Diego Magdaleno, Lopez is one to watch.
A Brooklyn-born 2016 Olympian for his parents’ native Honduras, Lopez fought in Madison Square Garden last May 12 of last year. He delivered a first-round knockout of Vitor Jones Freitas with a Fortnite dance that went viral.
Stevenson’s (10-0, 6 KOs) last outing ended with a spectacular fourth-round TKO over Jessie Cris Rosales on Jan. 18th. The native of Newark, N.J. hopes to move closer to a world title opportunity this year. His opponent, Diaz (24-1, 16 KOs) moved down to featherweight following his July 2018 decision loss to Masayuki Ito for the vacant WBO junior lightweight world title.
Top Rank is looking to make its deal with ESPN a major asset for boxing fans. After signing heavyweight Tyson Fury recently to a reported $100 million deal, ESPN and Top Rank aren’t going anywhere.
