WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson trains to defend his title against little-known Floyd Schofield on February 22 in Riyadh. Fans are curious if Shakur, 27, can get through training camp without suffering a setback from his injured right hand.
Hand healing?
Shakur injured his right hand while training for his title defense against Joe Cordina on the October 12 card. The fight has been cancelled, and this will be Shakur's first time back since surgery.
If Stevenson's surgically repaired right hand collapses during the Schofield fight, he will have to move around the ring as he did against Edwin de los Santos in their Nov. 16, 2023, fight.
Assuming Stevenson makes it through training camp without his hands falling apart, he's in for 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 performs on the Riyadh card loaded with Turki Al Sheikh. His fight with Schofield is buried under four other fights on the card, suggesting he has lost ground after two lackluster performances against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin de los Santos.
Schofield has no experience against world-class competition in his short career, and some fans believe the only reason he got the title shot against Shakur is because his father talked his way into the match on social media.
Schofield is highly rated by the World Boxing Federation for beating fluff opposition, but he doesn't rank in the top 15 in real terms. Floyd struggled to get the better of Rene Tellez Giron on November 2nd in his last fight.
Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) needs to impress Floyd Jr., 22, to win back the fans he lost after his last two fights against De Los Santos and Harutyunyan. A lot of people gave up on Shakur, viewing him as a typical runner after these two fights.
Stevenson has been fighting this way since turning pro after being beaten by Cuban Robesy Ramirez in the finals of the 2016 Olympics. Some naive boxing fans hoped Shakur would improve. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The saying goes: “A tiger cannot change its stripes.”
Newark's Shakur doesn't fit into the modern era 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 around. You must entertain.
Schofield is not as big a player as De los Santos, but he is still dangerous and young. He will give it his all, looking to knockout Stevenson to set himself up for a fight against Gervonta Davis.
8 weeks out 📸 @ShakurStevenson pic.twitter.com/kVFaJGMV9J
— Shot by Zax📸 (@ShotByZax) January 2, 2025
