Shakur begins his camp to defend the Schofield title

Shakur Stevenson begins the fight to defend his WBC lightweight belt against Floyd Schofield, which takes place in 65 days on February 22 in Riyadh.

Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) makes his debut for Matchroom Boxing against undefeated Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) in a fight he is favored to win. He’s not the guy he wanted against No. 1 ranked contender William Zepeda, but he was unavailable due to a hand injury from his last fight on November 16.

De los Santos slowed down

Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has received criticism from fans for not focusing on setting up a rematch with Edwin de los Santos, whom he fouled out last year on November 16. Stevenson has complained about his injury, but has shown no desire to fight de los Santos now that he is healthy.

This lack of interest is a clear sign that he knows the threat de los Santos poses to him and would rather fight the 22-year-old rookie Schofield so as not to jeopardize a potential unification fight against Gervonta “Tank” Davis. .

Three-division world champion Stevenson is talking about a big match, but he’s not willing to take the risks now that he’s on the cusp of getting that elusive huge payday against Tank. Shakur has Some chicken in itcertainly. After Stevenson’s bad experience against de los Santos last year, he wants no part of it.

Shakur’s defense was buried

Shakur vs. Schofield fights on the undercard of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol card on February 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The interesting thing is that the Stevenson-Schofield fight was buried in fifth place on the Turki Al Sheikh card on February 22, below these fights:

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol 2
Daniel DuBois vs. Joseph Parker: Common Feature
Carlos Adams vs. Hamza Shiraz
Virgil Ortiz Jr. vs. Israel Madrimov
Shakur Stevenson vs. Floyd Scofield

“Shakur was a former fighter in the sense we used to promote him. I thought he was a tremendous talent, and I still believe he would beat any lightweight with the possible exception of Keshawn Davis. “Neither guy wants to fight each other,” Bob Arum said. Combat Center TVHe talks about whether Shakur Stevenson can beat Gervonta Davis.