Shakur Stevenson dominates Teofimo Lopez to become a 4-division champion

NEW YORK (AP) — Shakur Stevenson made it sound easy and look even easier.

He dominated Teofimo Lopez to win a title in a fourth weight class, taking a unanimous decision Saturday night to capture the WBO junior welterweight belt.

“This is the art of boxing,” Stevenson said. “Hit, don’t get hit and pick guys apart.”

Stevenson (25-0) may have mastered that combination as well as anyone in boxing right now.

The unbeaten southpaw was in control the whole way, hardly getting hit in the early rounds and opening a cut over Lopez's left eye later in the bout. All three judges scored the fight 119-109, giving just one round to Lopez.

“I picked him apart, I did what I was supposed to do,” Stevenson said.

Lopez (22-2) tried to press the action, but too often all that accomplished was leaving himself open to Stevenson's counter punches.

The current WBC lightweight champion added the 140-pound belt that Lopez held and will be tough to beat no matter which weight class he opts to remain in. Stevenson traded words in the ring afterward with Conor Benn, the British fighter who has largely fought as a welterweight.

Turki Alalshikh, whose Ring Magazine promoted the event, tweeted that the attendance of 21,324 was a record for a boxing event at the current Madison Square Garden, opened in 1968. The crowd that roared for both local fighters in the minutes before the bout didn’t have many chances to get loud once it began. It was clear early that Stevenson’s style, effective but not especially exciting, was going to control the fight.

Unable to match what might be Stevenson's best-in-boxing foot speed, Lopez was often forced to lunge forward in hopes of connecting, putting himself at risk for shots that came back faster and even most times harder. The area around his left eye was red by the eighth round and blood streamed down his face after a cut opened in the 10th.

Lopez had little explanation for why the fight went so poorly for him.

“I could say a lot of things. Still going to be the wrong thing,” he said.

Stevenson entered the ring and reunited with Terence Crawford, the retired multidivision champion who is an adviser to the Newark, New Jersey, fighter.

There was then a lengthy wait before Lopez’s ring walk turned into a dance performance, as he was joined by the Jabbawockeez.

Lopez kept up with them better than with Stevenson.

The Brooklyn product came aggressively out of his corner when the fight began, but Stevenson was mostly able to keep him from getting close enough to land much and soon began to find openings to score with lefts. He knocked Lopez off balance with one of them in the fourth round, caught him right on the chin with a couple of right jabs in the sixth, and by then it was becoming no longer a question if Lopez would win the fight but if he would even win a round.

Stevenson was better than a 3-to-1 favorite according to BetMGM Sportsbook, but two of Lopez’s finest performances had come as the underdog in title fights. The first came when he beat Vasiliy Lomachenko in a 135-pound bout in 2020, and he knocked off former undisputed 140-pound champion Josh Taylor in 2023.

But Stevenson might be in a different class than even those greats. He also has held belts at featherweight and super featherweight with his top defensive skills and just as much offense as he needs. He said he not only felt faster than Lopez, but surprisingly also stronger.

It was a good night for Brooklyn boxers earlier in the event.

Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (17-0, 10 KOs) won the WBC featherweight title by knocking out Carlos Castro in the ninth round. Heavyweight Jarrell Miller overcame a mid-fight hair misfunction to edge Kingsley Ibeh by split decision and improve to 27-1.

Ibeh landed a flurry of shots in the second round and one knocked Miller’s head backward, and his hairpiece popped upward from the front, revealing a large bald spot that covered most of his head.

Miller finished the round with the hairpiece, then ripped it off in his corner between rounds and tossed it into the crowd.

Also, former lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis (14-0, 10 KOs) made an impressive move up to 140 pounds, knocking Jamaine Ortiz down twice and stopping him in the 12th round. Davis then indicated he wants to move up again to face welterweight champion Devin Haney.

AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing

CORRECTS THE NAME TO SHAKUR, NOT SHADUR - Shakur Stevenson waits for the start of a super lightweight title boxing match against Teofimo Lopez Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

CORRECTS THE NAME TO SHAKUR, NOT SHADUR - Teofimo Lopez walks toward the ring with the The Jabbawockeez for a super lightweight title boxing match against Shakur Stevenson Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

CORRECTS THE NAME TO SHAKUR, NOT SHADUR - Shakur Stevenson gestures before a super lightweight title boxing match against Teofimo Lopez Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Shadur Stevenson waits for the start of a super lightweight title boxing match against Teofimo Lopez Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Shadur Stevenson, right, fights Teofimo Lopez during a super lightweight title boxing match Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Teofimo Lopez walks toward the ring with the The Jabbawockeez for a super lightweight title boxing match against Shadur Stevenson Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Shadur Stevenson gestures before a super lightweight title boxing match against Teofimo Lopez Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Shadur Stevenson, left, fights Teofimo Lopez during a super lightweight title boxing match Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Keyshawn Davis, left, punches Jamaine Ortiz during a super lightweight boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Kingsley Ibeh, right, punches Jarrell Miller during a heavyweight boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Bruce Carrington celebrates as the referee counts for Carlos Castro during a featherweight title boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

KAFR YASIF, Israel (AP) — Nabil Safiya had taken a break from studying for a biology exam to meet a cousin at a pizza parlor when a gunman on a motorcycle rode past and fired, killing the 15-year-old as he sat in a black Renault.

The shooting — which police later said was a case of mistaken identity — stunned his hometown of Kafr Yasif, long besieged, like many Palestinian towns in Israel, by a wave of gang violence and family feuds.

“There is no set time for the gunfire anymore,” said Nabil’s father, Ashraf Safiya. “They can kill you in school, they can kill you in the street, they can kill you in the football stadium.”

The violence plaguing Israel’s Arab minority has become an inescapable part of daily life. Activists have long accused authorities of failing to address the issue and say that sense has deepened under Israel's current far-right government.

One out of every five citizens in Israel is Palestinian. The rate of crime-related killings among them is more than 22 times higher than that for Jewish Israelis, while arrest and indictment rates for those crimes are far lower. Critics cite the disparities as evidence of entrenched discrimination and neglect.

A growing number of demonstrations are sweeping Israel. Thousands marched in Tel Aviv late Saturday to demand action, while Arab communities have gone on strike, closing shops and schools.

In November, after Nabil was gunned down, residents marched through the streets, students boycotted their classes and the Safiya family turned their home into a shrine with pictures and posters of Nabil.

The outrage had as much to do with what happened as with how often it keeps happening.

“There’s a law for the Jewish society and a different law for Palestinian society,” Ghassan Munayyer, a political activist from Lod, a mixed city with a large Palestinian population, said at a recent protest.

Some Palestinian citizens have reached the highest echelons of business and politics in Israel. Yet many feel forsaken by authorities, with their communities marked by underinvestment and high unemployment that fuels frustration and distrust toward the state.

Nabil was one of a record 252 Palestinian citizens to be killed in Israel last year, according to data from Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that promotes coexistence and safer communities. The toll continues to climb, with at least 26 additional crime-related killings in January.

Walid Haddad, a criminologist who teaches at Ono Academic College and who previously worked in Israel’s national security ministry, said that organized crime thrives off weapons trafficking and loan‑sharking in places where people lack access to credit. Gangs also extort residents and business owners for “protection,” he said.

Based on interviews with gang members in prisons and courts, he said they can earn anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether the job is torching cars, shooting at buildings or assassinating rival leaders.

"If they fire at homes or people once or twice a month, they can buy cars, go on trips. It’s easy money,” Haddad said, noting a widespread sense of impunity.

The violence has stifled the rhythm of life in many Palestinian communities. In Kafr Yasif, a northern Israel town of 10,000, streets empty by nightfall, and it’s not uncommon for those trying to sleep to hear gunshots ringing through their neighborhoods.

Last year, only 8% of killings of Palestinian citizens led to charges filed against suspects, compared with 55% in Jewish communities, according to Abraham Initiatives.

Lama Yassin, the Abraham Initiatives’ director of shared cities and regions, said strained relations with police long discouraged Palestinian citizens from calling for new police stations or more police officers in their communities.

Not anymore.

“In recent years, because people are so depressed and feel like they’re not able to practice day-to-day life ... Arabs are saying, ‘Do whatever it takes, even if it means more police in our towns,’” Yassin said.

The killings have become a rallying cry for Palestinian-led political parties after successive governments pledged to curb the bloodshed with little results. Politicians and activists see the spate of violence as a reflection of selective enforcement and police apathy.

"We’ve been talking about this for 10 years," said Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman.

She labeled policing in Palestinian communities “collective punishment,” noting that when Jews are victims of violence, police often set up roadblocks in neighboring Palestinian towns, flood areas with officers and arrest suspects en masse.

“The only side that can be able to smash a mafia is the state and the state is doing nothing except letting (organized crime) understand that they are free to do whatever they want,” Touma-Suleiman said.

Many communities feel impunity has gotten worse, she added, under National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who with authority over the police has launched aggressive and visible campaigns against other crimes, targeting protests and pushing for tougher operations in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police reject allegations of skewed priorities, saying that killings in these communities are a top priority. Police also have said investigations are challenging because witnesses don’t always cooperate.

“Investigative decisions are guided by evidence, operational considerations, and due process, not by indifference or lack of prioritization,” police said in a statement.

In Kafr Yasif, Ashraf Safiya vowed his son wouldn’t become just another statistic.

He had just gotten home from his work as a dentist and off the phone with Nabil when he learned about the shooting. He raced to the scene to find the car window shattered as Nabil was being rushed to the hospital. Doctors there pronounced him dead.

“The idea was that the blood of this boy would not be wasted,” Safiya said of protests he helped organize. “If people stop caring about these cases, we’re going to just have another case and another case.”

Authorities said last month they were preparing to file an indictment against a 23-year-old arrested in a neighboring town in connection with the shooting. They said the intended target was a relative, referring to the cousin with Nabil that night.

And they described Nabil as a victim of what they called "blood feuds within Arab society.”

At a late January demonstration in Kafr Yasif, marchers carried portraits of Nabil and Nidal Mosaedah, another local boy killed in the violence. Police broke up the protest, saying it lasted longer than authorized, and arrested its leaders, including the former head of the town council.

The show of force, residents said, may have quashed one protest, but did nothing to halt the killings.

__ Hazboun reported from Jerusalem.

Palestinian citizens of Israel participate in a rally calling for greater security amid rising crime in their communities, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinian citizens of Israel participate in a rally calling for greater security amid rising crime in their communities, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinian citizens of Israel participate in a rally calling for greater security amid rising crime in their communities, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Raweah Safiya consoles one of her children as he cries over the death of his brother, Nabil Safiya, at the family's home in Kafr Yasif, northern Israel, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Raweah Safiya palms a poster bearing the image of her son, Nabil, who was shot dead in last November in a case of mistaken identity, a victim of gang-related violence, in Kafr Yasif, northern Israel, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)