Promoter Eddie Hearn says they’ve made a “Massive offer” to Golden Boy for their fighter Floyd ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield to be the next opponent for WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22nd.
Hearn feels the 22-year-old Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) should accept the offer because he has “Nothing to lose,” which is easy for him to say.
Schofield looked horrible in his last fight, struggling mightily against the second-tier fighter, Rene Tellez Giron (20-4, 13 KOs), getting dropped in the 11th and absorbing a career’s worth of punishment earlier this month on November 2nd.
Hearn Wants Schofield
After that performance, Schofield isn’t remotely ready to fight anyone in the top 10, and definitely not a defensive fighter like Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs), who will be playing hit-and-run all night against him.
Hearn says he’s also interested in Raymond Muratalla and WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk for Shakur. However, he says the Berinchyk fight would be tricky to make because there are issues.
He doesn’t say what they are, but Top Rank is likely saving Berinchyk for their fighter, Keyshawn Davis, to fight. Top Rank is trying to make a star out of the badly flawed Keyshawn, and Berinchyk is their best chance to make the 2020 Olympic silver medalist a world champion on the cheap without risking his hide against one of the talented belt-holders.
“Tevin Farmer is a good fighter. Let’s not get it twisted. He’s very skillful, and he’s pretty awkward as well,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing News, discussing why William Zepeda didn’t shine in his fight against Tevin Farmer on November 16th in Riyadh.
“I think Zepeda has been a little bit overhyped, and I don’t think Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy want that fight against Shakur Stevenson. Oscar is not an idiot. He knows. This is the sad thing about boxing.
“Rather than take on greatness in Shakur Stevenson, I believe Oscar would rather not lose to Matchroom. ‘So, we won’t give him [Shakur] that fight. Let’s keep building his [Zepeda] record.’ Take a chance. You never know. Sometimes when a fighter steps up at that level, sometimes they perform, and it’s for the world championship.”
Zepeda Unavailable
If Zepeda is injured, what can you do? He hurt his left hand in his 10-round decision win over Tevin Farmer on November 16th in Riyadh and will need six to eight weeks of recovery time. That’s too much time for Zepeda to be available to challenge Shakur for his WBC lightweight title on February 22nd. It might be a good thing for Shakur and Hearn because he wasn’t going to beat Zepeda.
This talent throws over 100+ punches per round and landed a godawful amount of body shots on Farmer. The former IBF super featherweight champion Farmer never took so many punches to the body before, and he looked like a drained D-cell battery by the eighth round, just holding nonstop, trying to keep Zepeda from hitting him.
“The fight has been ordered. If he [Zepeda] has a hand injury. I don’t believe they’re going to take that fight. Shakur knows we’ve had calls with His Excellency. We would like to make the [Denys] Berinchyk unification. There are other fights we’re looking at. Muratalla, we’ve talked to Top Rank about it, and we’ve now made Golden Boy an offer for Kid Schofield.”
Hearn wants Schofield because it’s a sure-thing win for Shakur Stevenson, and there would be a lot of trash talk in the build-up between them. It would be a total mismatch for Shakur, just a showcase-level fight. It would be better for Shakur to fight the Cuban Andy Cruz, the guy who beat Keyshawn Davis four times, including in the 2020 Olympic finals. Cruz is like a better version of Shakur, with power, aggressiveness, and defensive skills on par with his.
“It’s a massive offer, and I’m sick and tired of people talking on Twitter. Make the fight. Kid Schofield is a great young talent. It would be a great build-up. You’ve got nothing to lose. You’ve got a load of money and a great opportunity,” said Hearn.
The offer would have to be huge for Golden Boy to allow the inexperienced Schofield to fight Shakur because his chances of winning would be nonexistent. Schofield has limited skills, and he doesn’t punch hard enough to count on his power to bail him out like Raymond Muratalla. The likely end result of a Shakur-Schofield fight is a one-sided 12-round shutout win for Shakur, with Schofield getting dominated from A to B. It wouldn’t be pretty and would forever tarnish Schofield’s career. There would be no coming back.
Shakur’s Fight Announcement
“So, hopefully, one of those fights will be made, and I think there will be an announcement on February 22nd from His Excellency, perhaps even this week,” said Hearn.
If His Excellency is going to potentially announce Shakur’s next fight as early as this week, it’s a strong signal that Schofield will be the one he faces. Hearn isn’t going to let Shakur fight the big-punching Muratalla because he hits too hard.
As we saw in Muratalla’s fight against Tevin Farmer, even when he’s getting outboxed, he’s dangerous even in the later rounds. All it would take is one solid right hand from Muratalla in the later rounds to send Shakur to the canvas, and he might not get up.
“We mentioned Cordina for the fight [against Shakur]. The main plan would be to fight [WBO lightweight champion] Berinchyk for a unification. Obviously, Top Rank, there are a few issues that as well. I think it might come from those other two if not Berinchyk,” said Hearn.
The chances of Hearn getting Berinchyk for a fight with Shakur are slim unless His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wants that match. He can make it happen, but without his help, Berinchyk will be out of reach, being saved for the Keyshawn match by Top Rank.
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