Two judges who scored Teofimo Lopez’s easy victory over Arnold Barboza closer than it seemed have been assigned to his showdown with Shakur Stevenson.

The Ring has learned two New York-based judges, Max De Luca and Eric Marlinski, will score Lopez-Stevenson on January 31 at Madison Square Garden. The New York State Athletic Commission also approved New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld to judge their 12-round fight for the Brooklyn-born Lopez’s Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles a week from Saturday night.

New Jersey’s Harvey Dock has been selected as the referee for Lopez-Stevenson, the main event of “The Ring 6” pay-per-view show.

De Luca and Marlinski both scored Lopez a 116-112 winner against Barboza on The Ring’s Rolly Romero-Ryan Garcia undercard May 2 at Times Square in New York. The third judge that night, Oklahoma’s David Sutherland, scored Lopez a wider winner, 118-110.

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) won 10 rounds according to Sutherland, whereas De Luca and Marlinski credited the former unified lightweight champ for winning eight rounds apiece.

According to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics, Lopez landed 56 more punches overall than Barboza (127-of-574 to 71-of-426). CompuBox counted an average of only 5.9 connections per round for an ineffective Barboza (32-1, 11 KOs).

The judges figure to factor into the outcome of Lopez-Stevenson in part because each of Lopez’s past five fights and six of his seven world title bouts have gone the distance.

Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs), the WBC lightweight champ, is also an elite-level opponent who is generally regarded as one of the best defensive fighters in boxing. Seven of Stevenson’s nine world championship matches went 12 rounds as well.

Weisfeld scored Stevenson a comfortable winner over Edwin De Los Santos and Robson Conceicao in two of the three-division champ’s title bouts in recent years. Stevenson – a 2016 Olympic silver medalist from Newark, New Jersey – defeated De Los Santos 116-112 on Weisfeld’s card in November 2023 and beat Conceicao 117-109 according to Weisfeld in September 2022.

De Luca has worked one of Stevenson’s championship fights. He scored Stevenson a 120-107 winner against Jeremia Nakathila in June 2021, as did Nevada judges Lisa Giampa and Dave Moretti.

Marlinski hasn’t scored any of Stevenson’s 24 professional fights.

Weisfeld, meanwhile, has scored Lopez a 117-111 winner of two of his most noteworthy victories, against Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jamaine Ortiz.

New York’s Julie Lederman scored Lopez-Lomachenko 119-109 for Lopez, who won 116-112 on Nevada-based Tim Cheatham’s card in October 2020. Cheatham and Sutherland both scored Lopez-Ortiz closer than Weisfeld had it, 115-113 apiece, in February 2024.

Four bouts before De Luca worked Lopez-Barbosa, he scored Lopez a 96-93 winner against Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin in December 2022 at Madison Square Garden.

Lopez edged Martin, who dropped Lopez in the second round, by split decision. Montreal’s Pasquale Procopio also scored Lopez the winner of their 10-rounder, 97-92, but Italy’s Guido Cavalleri had it 95-94 for Martin.