Ignored Game Plans
“Everything was good leading up to the fight,” Lopez Sr. said SecondsOut.com. “The sparring sessions are what motivated me in this fight. I was 100% sure we were going to win. For some reason in the game plan, my son didn’t do what I told him he should do.”
He emphasized that the goal was to disrupt Stevenson’s pace early and prevent the kind of controlled scoring that would lead to scoring.
“His rhythm has to be different where we have to stop Shakur from doing whatever Shakur does best,” he added before briefly thanking the winner. “Congratulations to him for the win, but that’s not my son inside.”
Jump out
Lopez Sr. also argued that the discussion before the war about Stevenson’s next assignment caused a mental breakdown.
“I think it’s probably the communication with everyone, the media, everything leading up to this fight, talking about Shakur’s price in May,” he said. “So I think it might have happened to him.”
He dismissed criticism about his absence from a press conference, denying speculation about his condition and saying he was resting. According to Lopez Sr., the combination of conversations affected his son’s focus.
Important Psychological Requests
“My son is easily intimidated and how can you fight a fight when everyone wants you to lose?” Lopez Sr. said. “He didn’t seem to have all his powers… He didn’t have any powers. I was shocked.”
He went further, arguing the tone of the ad crossed a line.
“No one has spoken well about him, so he has to stop,” he said. “The public can have an opinion but when you get all the communications that say my boy is going to kick his ass … it’s not true.”
Lopez was more of a fighter who controlled the distance, dictated the pace, and forced himself to move for long stretches of the contest. At 27, Lopez still carries the name recognition and destructive ability, but the continued conflict has reduced his mark for mistakes in the divisions that reward stability.
