Lightweight title challenger Floyd Schofield is reportedly off Saturday’s card against WBC titleholder Shakur Stevenson, with initial plans to summon a replacement opponent.
Schofield’s apparent withdrawal, first reported by Ring Magazine, follows his absence from Tuesday’s grand arrivals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a bizarre claim by his father-trainer that set off an immediate response from Stevenson’s co-manager.
The 22-year-old Schofield, considered a heavy underdog to three-division titlist Stevenson in the “The Last Crescendo” card at Kingdom Arena, was the lone boxer on the main portion of the card who skipped the festivities, leading to speculation about his health and weight heading into the biggest fight of his young career.
On Schofield’s “X” page, believed to be run by his father and trainer, Floyd Schofield Snr, a since-deleted post released shortly before noon ET on Tuesday read: “They poisoned my son” and claimed that a masseuse associated with Stevenson’s team had “wiped a cream on my son.”
That was met swiftly by Stevenson’s co-manager, Josh Dubin.
“This fighter [Schofield] should get advised on the defamation laws in our country,” Dubin told BoxingScene on Tuesday. “Saying these things that slander Shakur does not come without legal consequences. Saying that his food was poisoned will not go unrecognized. [Schofield] is being put on notice right now.
“People might think there’s a kernel of truth in these lies [regarding the poisoning] by his father, when it seems to be a way for him to make an excuse he’s not going to fight.”
Dubin spoke minutes before the report of Schofield’s withdrawal went live.
“We’re not going to tolerate these lies and either [the Schofields] or someone on their behalf needs to publicly apologize now,” Dubin said.
Officials in Saudi Arabia have not confirmed if a replacement fighter will be retained to fight Stevenson on the stacked card that also includes heavyweight, light heavyweight and middleweight title fights.
Schofield appeared in good spirits Monday while doing interviews with assembled media. In an interview with FightHub, he called Stevenson a “diva” and said that his four-month-old “son is more of a man than him.”
There was not an immediate response to calls and text messages left for representatives of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Schofield.
Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing company promotes Stevenson, had a less sinister hypothesis for why Schofield was absent: a mandatory weight check from the British Boxing Board of Control, which is overseeing the boxing action for this event.
The early weight checks have caught other American fighters by surprise.
“All of a sudden, you have a fighter like Floyd Schofield who has to make a check weight tomorrow, he might want to train tonight,” Hearn told IFL.TV. “He really doesn’t want to come to the grand arrivals going, ‘Hello, everybody!’ He’s getting ready for the check weight tomorrow. That’s why I believe he’s not here tonight.”
This wasn’t the first time Schofield, 18-0 (12 KOs), of Austin, Texas, has missed a public event ahead of his challenge of fellow New Jersey native Stevenson, 22-0 (10 KOs).
Schofield was not present for last month’s press conference in London, leading Stevenson to suggest that Schofield would pull out of the fight.
Stevenson made no mention of Schofield’s absence at the grand arrival, as he talked up his own excitement about fighting for the first time outside of the U.S. as a professional.
“I’m ready to show the world that I’m a superstar,” Stevenson said. “I think I’m one of the best fighters in the sport of boxing. The world will know February 22.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
Read the full article here
