Floyd Schofield reacted today about reports that his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, hadn’t signed off on a fight between him and WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson for February 22nd.
Contract Update
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) posted that De La Hoya is “waiting for Shakur’s team to send the final agreement.” He insists that his team “knows we are going to stop Shakur.”
De La Hoya has been quiet about his fighter, 22-year-old Schofield, taking on Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) on the massive Riyadh Season card next February. If Oscar does have misgivings about the inexperienced novice Schofield taking the fight against the three-division world champion Shakur, it’s understandable.
Schofield looked like a pure 100% novice in his last fight against Rene Tellez Giron on November 2nd. He got dropped and took many hard, punishing shots from a fighter Michel Rivera had dominated. De La Hoya would look incompetent if he allowed Schofield to take that fight. The backlash would be severe for Oscar, and his fighter, Schofield’s career would be ruined.
Schofield’s stock would plummet from a one-sided loss to Stevenson, and it’s possible that he would never rise up again. He would be one of the many fighters who have lost to Shakur and would never be mentioned again by fans except to be criticized.
A Better Option for Schofield
With Kid Austin’s #2 ranking with the WBA, he can challenge champion Gervonta Davis for his belt, which would likely be a bigger payday. That would be better fight for Schofield to take than facing the defensive artist Shakur, and get outboxed in a fight that could a dull affair.
Assuming the Shakur-Schofield fight doesn’t happen, Shakur needs to give Edwin De Los Santos a rematch so he can show fans that his poor performance against him in 2023 was really due to a hand injury.
As things are now, fans don’t believe Shakur was injured in the De Los Santos fight. They felt the power from him, and he took off running for the remainder of the fight, which was heavily booed by the fans at the ringside at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Nevada crowd doesn’t like watching runners. That style might work in Newark, New Jersey, but not elsewhere. You entertain, and Shakur’s outdated, archaic hit-and-not-get style was poison for the fans at the T-Mobile.
Shakur mentioned this week that he wants to sign De Los Santos so he can promote him. Fans see this as a sneaky way for Shakur to have a ducking excuse. If Stevenson signs De Los Santos, he’ll have a permanent excuse to tell fans why he’s not fighting him.
🤔 https://t.co/Rkbdcu5Nwv
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) November 28, 2024
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