WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson trains for his title defense against the unheralded Floyd Schofield on February 22 in Riyadh. Fans are curious if Shakur, 27, can make it through training camp without re-injuring his injured right arm.
Hand healed?
Shakur injured his right hand in training for his title defense against Joe Cordina on the Oct. 12 card. The fight was canceled, and this will be Shakur’s first return after surgery.
If Stevenson’s surgically repaired right hand breaks down during the Schofield fight, he will be forced to move around the ring like he did against Edwin De Los Santos in their fight on November 16, 2023.
Assuming Stevenson makes it through training camp without his hands falling apart, he faces a tough fight against the 22-year-old Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs). This guy can punch, he’s aggressive and he sees this fight as a way to put himself in a position to fight Gervonta Davis.
Shakur needs to look good in this fight as he features on Turki Al-Shiekh’s loaded Riyadh card. His fight with Schofield is buried under four other fights on the card, signaling that he has lost status after two lackluster performances against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos.
Schofield has no experience with world-level opponents in his short career, and some fans believe the only reason he’s in the title fight against Shakur is because his father has spoken out on social media about him coming into the match.
Schofield is highly rated by the World Boxing Association for beating fluffy opponents, but he doesn’t rate a top 15 spot right. On November 2nd, in his last fight on November 2nd, Floyd defeated assistant Rene Tellez Giron.
Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) needs to impress Floyd Jr., who is 22, to win back the fans he lost after his last two fights against De Los Santos and Harutyunyan. Many people gave up on Shakur, seeing him as a typical runner after those two fights.
Stevenson has struggled that way since turning pro after being beaten by Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez in the 2016 Olympic final. Some naive boxing fans hoped Shakur would evolve. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The saying goes, ‘A tiger cannot change its stripes.’
Shakur, a native of Newark, just doesn’t fit in with this modern age of boxing. He belongs to the Mayweather era of the 1990s before the Internet era. Nowadays, fans have little patience for boring fighters who run. You have to have fun.
Schofield is not as big a hitter as De Los Santos, but he is still dangerous and young. He will give it his all, looking to knock out Stevenson to position himself for the fight against Gervonta Davis.
8 weeks out 📸 @ShakurStevenson pic.twitter.com/kVFaJGMV9J
— Shot by Zax📸 (@ShotByZax) January 2, 2025
