Teofimo Lopez is one of the sport’s most fascinating fighters.

From his eye-popping athleticism inside the ring to agitating antics outside, Lopez always seems to be at his best when he’s counted out.

Once again, Teofimo's chances are being dismissed ahead of a Ring Magazine championship fight. This time, he’s the defending champion as he prepares to meet Shakur Stevenson with junior welterweight supremacy at stake on DAZN.

Given the matchup will headline a six-bout The Ring VI card at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a onetime boxing hotbed starved for a major fight, the ante is raised.

Stevenson is arguably boxing’s best defensive fighter and he’s mastered the art of counterpunching. Lopez has encountered issues with this style in the past, against boxers levels below Shakur.

Jamaine Ortiz, who fights Keyshawn Davis in the Jan. 31 co-feature, is one such boxer who gave Lopez fits with his stick-and-move style. Another is Sandor Martin.

Conventional wisdom says Shakur will be too elusive and box his way to a decision victory to unseat Lopez. (Stevenson is about a minus-340 favorite in sportsbooks.)

What makes this fight so intriguing — besides pitting two of boxing’s best pound-for-pound in their prime — is how Lopez has responded as an underdog in the past.

When Lopez prepared to challenge Vasiliy Lomachenko for the Ring Magazine lightweight championship in 2020, he faced similar odds. Consensus was that Lomachenko would beat him to the punch and outbox him.

Instead, Lopez started fast and then closed strong by throwing nearly 100 punches in the final round to seal the decision.

Similarly, Lopez was an underdog when he challenged Josh Taylor for the Ring Magazine junior welterweight championship in 2023 at The Garden’s theater.

Lopez’s athleticism was too much as he stepped to Taylor and won the fight in convincing fashion. Chaos swirled around Lopez in the lead-up, and just maybe that’s when he's at his best.

Despite the pair of signature victories, Lopez isn’t on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list. For that, he can blame his fight night inconsistencies.

One evening, he looks unbeatable. He was pretty damn good in his last fight, a wide points victory over Arnold Barboza in Times Square. Even in the lead-up to that bout, Barboza was a sexy upset pick from many observers.

But on many nights when Lopez was expected to cruise, he faced trouble. In a victory over Canadian-level fighter Steve Claggett in June 2024, Lopez failed to impress over 12 rounds.

His major upset split decision loss by George Kambosos three years earlier remains the lone blemish on his record.

Just maybe, Lopez needs to be "up" for the fight, so to speak. And ahead of a challenge like Stevenson, Lopez seems locked in.

“I think that I’m someone who is all about against all odds. My whole thing’s always been that way,” Lopez said on last month’s Inside the Ring on DAZN. “When the odds are all against me, I think that’s when I perform my best and I look forward to doing that again.”

Lopez should have the faster hands, if not faster feet, against Stevenson. But he’ll have to also contend with a fighter who seems to be peaking.

Stevenson was impressive in handling Mexican pressure fighter William Zepeda in July. That was at lightweight.

Now, Stevenson is looking for the biggest win of his career. Credit to Shakur for taking on the best in his first at a new weight without a warmup bout.

Despite Shakur’s boxing accolades that include world titles in three weight classes, he’s yet to face someone on the elite level. The last boxer he faced who perhaps was more athletic, Edwin De Los Santos, gave Stevenson all he could handle.

Can Lopez beat Stevenson to the punch and not let him find his rhythm as one of boxing’s best counterpunchers? This is some way to kick off the boxing calendar for 2026 as two of boxing’s best start to settle who might be the top boxer of the next generation.

After all, Terence Crawford is retired with Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue not too far behind.