Shakur Stevenson wants Floyd Schofield as his opponent for the title defense of his WBC lightweight belt on February 22 in Riyadh. Schofield is not well known among casual boxing fans. He is young and inexperienced and is coming off a poor performance against Rene Tellez Giron.
Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) and Schofield agreed to the fight on social media after the 22-year-old Floyd said he would step in to replace William Zepeda after he opted out of the fight.
Golden Boy’s top brass, Eric Gomez and Oscar De La Hoya, must agree to let Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) be the replacement.
More importantly, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh will have to agree to the fight, as this is his Riyadh season ticket. He may have doubts about letting the inexperienced Schofield take this fight against the three-division world champion Shakur. Schofield is not ready.
Better options exist
- Andy Cruz: Olympic gold medalist in 2020
- Raymond Muratalla
- Edwin Delos Santos
- Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela
If you are Turki, a better option for Shakur would be to use Andy Cruz because he has the experience, size, technical skills and a smart game that echoes Stevenson’s. The difference is that Cruz has more power, and is willing to trade.
Schofield didn’t look good in his last fight, working a 12-round unanimous decision win over Rene Tellez Giron on Nov. 2 in Las Vegas. He was dropped by Giron in the 11th round and took a lot of hard punches throughout the fight.
