Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti get Grammys Life Achievement Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chaka Khan, Cher, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Fela Kuti and Whitney Houston received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy at the Grammys Special Merit Awards on Saturday night.

“Music has been my prayer, my healing, my joy, my truth,” Khan said as she accepted the award. “Through it, I saved my life.”

She was the only Lifetime Achievement recipient who appeared at the ceremony at the small Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on the eve of Sunday's main Grammys ceremony.

She was preceded by a short documentary on her career that highlighted her hits as a member of the funk band Rufus and as a solo artist, including 1974's Stevie Wonder-written “Tell Me Something Good,” 1983's “Ain't Nobody,” 1978's “I'm Every Woman” and 1984's Prince-penned “I Feel For You.”

Wearing a shimmering sea green gown, she thanked her many collaborators while admitting not all of them were entirely sane.

“Over 50 years I am blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers and creatives,” she said, pausing before adding, “and cuckoos.”

Family accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the Nigerian Afrobeat legend Kuti, who died in 1997, and the singing superstar Houston, who died in 2012.

“Her voice — that voice! — remains eternal,” Pat Houston, Whitney's sister-in-law, close friend and longtime manager, said. “Her legacy will live forever.”

Three of his children accepted the award for Kuti, introduced as a “producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the father of Afrobeat.” He's the first African musician to get the award.

“Thank you for bringing our father here,” Femi Kuti said. “It’s so important for us, it’s so important for Africa, it’s so important for world peace and the struggle.”

The audience gave a collective moan of disappointment when academy President Harvey Mason Jr. said Cher wasn't there.

She spoke in a very short video.

“The only thing I ever wanted to be was a singer. When I was 4 years old I used to run around the house naked, singing into a hair brush,” she said. “Things haven’t changed all that much.”

Santana also spoke on video, after his son, Salvador, accepted his trophy.

“The world is so infected with fear that we need the music and message of Santana to bring hope, courage and joy to heal the world,” Carlos Santana said.

Elton John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin paid tribute to Simon, calling him “the greatest American songwriter alive.”

Taupin was there as one of the recipients of the Grammys Trustees Award, which honors career contributions outside of performing.

Despite co-writing the vast majority of John’s hits, Taupin has somehow never won a competitive Grammy, though he’s nominated for one Sunday.

“I’ve been waiting 57 years for one of these,” he said, looking at his honorary trophy.

Taupin read a list of the songwriting principles he’s always followed. They included “avoid cliches,” “never write songs in cubicles” and “don’t say you’re going to die if she leaves you — because you’re not.”

Eddie Palmieri, a pianist, composer and bandleader who was a great innovator in Latin jazz and rumba, also got a Trustees Award.

Palmieri, who died last year at 88, became the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, in 1975.

Another trustees honoree was Sylvia Rhone, the first Black woman to head a major record label.

John Chowning, whose work as a Stanford professor in the 1960s was essential to the synthesizer sounds that dominated the 1980s, won the Technical Grammy Award.

Jennifer Jimenez, a band director from South Miami Senior High School, won the Grammys Music Educator Award, and “Ice Cream Man” by Raye got the Harry Belafonte Song for Social Change Award.

Yeni Kuti arrives at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Chaka Khan accepts the lifetime achievement award during the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Bernie Taupin accepts the trustees award during the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Chaka Khan accepts the lifetime achievement award during the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Chaka Khan arrives at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Shakur Stevenson 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.

The unbeaten Stevenson (25-0) 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.

The sold-out 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.

Stevenson entered the ring and reunited with Terence Crawford, the retired multi-division 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.

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

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)