Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson is one of boxing’s biggest fights of the year — but that’s on Saturday night.
On Friday night, a brawl broke out before the real bout at the Theater at Madison Square Garden as the weigh-ins were being completed.
TMZ reported that a brawl “broke out several times,” and even Bill Haney — father of WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney — was on the scene to try breaking up the encounter.
The elder Haney was taking part in an interview with FightHubTV when he was stopped on multiple occasions. The first was to greet former WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis, who is on the undercard for Lopez vs. Stevenson, fighting at welterweight. Haney then ran into heavyweight contender Derek Chisora, who is scheduled to face former longtime WBC champion Deontay Wilder on April 4.
As the two were catching up while Chisora was on a broadcast with The Daily Mail, Haney sprinted over mid-sentence to break up the fast-growing brawl to his right, at the Garden.
Among those involved in the brawl was Delante “Tiger” Johnson, an up-and-coming welterweight contender who has been featured on ESPN multiple times during Top Rank Boxing’s deal, and, reportedly, members of the younger Haney’s team.
Someone told Tiger to “chill” repeatedly in video on the scene.
Another angle of the brawl showed a closer view of how the fight started, with Johnson appearing to be taunted and then stepping to multiple people before the brawl died down.
The MSG Family of Companies said in a statement following the scrap that it would not tolerate any incidents like this one.
“Violence will not be condoned at MSG across any type of event, including hockey, basketball, boxing, concerts, or special events,” the statement read. “If any individual is found to participate in violent activity, whether you are part of the event, or a patron, you will be banned for life and unable to attend or participate in any event across all our venues.”
The NYPD told TMZ it was not dispatched to the melee.
Johnson, who sparred with Stevenson several years ago, most recently knocked out Nicklaus Flaz on a ProBox TV card on Nov. 7 in a minor upset, improving his record to 17-0 with eight knockouts.
Lopez, who is 22-1 with 13 KOs — most notably defeated then-No. 1 Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020 — is defending his WBO super lightweight and Ring magazine titles against Stevenson, the WBC lightweight champion, moving from 135 to 140 pounds.
Lopez, a Brooklyn-born former unified lightweight champion, last fought May 2, defeating Arnold Barboza in a Times Square boxing card, defending his WBO 140-pound belt.
Stevenson, a 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist and three-division world champion, comes into the bout with a perfect 24-0 record, with 11 wins by stoppage.
The Newark, N.J., native’s last bout was a 12-round unanimous decision win over highly ranked challenger William Zepeda at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens on July 12.