Shakur Stevenson’s unbeaten potential opponent defies Oscar De La Hoya to push for world title fight
Shakur Stevenson was due to defend his WBC lightweight title against mandatory challenger William Zepeda on February 22nd, but Zepeda confirmed that he is currently injured and won’t make that date.
After a split decision win over Tevin Farmer earlier this month, William Zepeda announced that he has injured his left forearm and will unfortunately not be able to fight on February 22nd in Saudi Arabia.
With that, WBC lightweight champion, Shakur Stevenson has been trying to figure out who he can defend his title against on the mammoth event.
Eddie Hearn sends an offer for Shakur Stevenson vs Floyd Schofield
Matchroom boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, has confirmed that he has sent an offer to His Excellency, Turki Alalshikh for a title fight between Stevenson and undefeated KO artist, Floyd Schofield.
‘Kid Austin’ recently picked up the biggest win of his career thus far against Rene Tellez Giron, winning the WBA International lightweight title.
After Zepeda confirmed he wouldn’t be fighting Stevenson, rumors began to circulate that Zepeda’s fellow Golden Boy fighter, Schofield would step in.
“We agreed to fight Zepeda, so did Golden Boy apparently. But apparently, he’s injured after a very lackluster performance. Schofield is a name that’s in the hat, we’ve been talking to Golden Boy, we’ve made an offer and we’re trying to tie that up with His Excellency now,” Hearn told Boxing Scene.
“I think it’s a really good fight, two very good undefeated American fighters, a lot of chat, a lot of back and forth in that fight. It’s Thanksgiving today, which is difficult to do business on, but we’ll do our best tonight and see where it gets to,” he continued.
Oscar De La Hoya attempts to deny Floyd Schofield of a title fight
However, things don’t look too cut and dry when it comes to making this potential fight, as the 22-year-old’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, isn’t keen on throwing him in against Stevenson with little experience.
Schofield took to X (formerly Twitter) over the past few days, leaking a message his father received from his promoter, De La Hoya, with the Golden Boy promoter clearly not too confident in the 22-year-old’s chances against Stevenson.
“My man I seriously believe in your son so much and have love for him but he’s 22 and I know how to make a champ for the next 15 years not run the risk of getting beat because he had no experience.
“If you’re telling me make it happen then I will. Happy Thanksgiving and have a blessed day,” De La Hoya wrote.
Despite that, Schofield is adamant to fight Stevenson, stating that this is now ‘personal’ after the champion made comments about his father.
“We love our promoter and do value his wise opinion. But this fight is personal. Remember Shakur Stevenson spoke bad about my dad. He was very disrespectful to my dad, calling him a female and telling him to suck your private area.
“Now it’s time to back up all that fake tough talk… Sign your contract fake champion and stop fooling people like you’re that guy,” Schofield continued.
